Email marketing : an hour a day

If the idea of starting an email marketing campaign overwhelms you, the authors of Email Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to email marketing basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track and measure results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute an email marketing campaign in just one hour a day. When you feel comfortable with the basics, learn how to use video and audio enabled email, implement tools like mobile devices and leverage social networks.

Author Notes

Jeanniey Mullen is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio and VIVmag and is also the founder and Chairperson of the Email Experience Council

Foreword	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
Chapter 1 Understanding Email Marketing Today	p. 1
How We Got Here	p. 2
What Email Means to Your Audience	p. 5
The Five Types of Email	p. 6
Awareness	p. 8
Consideration	p. 9
Conversion	p. 10
Product Usage	p. 10
Loyalty	p. 12
Understanding the Economic Impact of Email	p. 14
Test Your Knowledge	p. 15
Chapter 2 The Five Critical Elements of Every Email You Create	p. 17
Creating Brand Impact	p. 18
Determining How Much Brand Equity Your Emails Carry	p. 19
Adding Intelligence to Your Design	p. 22
Basic Elements of Intelligent Email	p. 22
Using This Insight to Your Advantage	p. 24
Driving the Purchase	p. 26
Waging the War Against Email ADD	p. 28
Beyond the Email Content: What You Need to Know	p. 29
Creating Transactional/Service Messages	p. 30
Adding Viral Marketing Elements	p. 34
Two Ways to Define Success of Your Viral Marketing Efforts	p. 35
Best Practices for Creating a Buzz Using Viral Efforts or Word of Mouth	p. 36
Test Your Knowledge	p. 37
Chapter 3 Getting Ready to Build Your Email Marketing Efforts	p. 39
Aligning Your Strategy with Your Tools	p. 40
Determining Your Tools: A Ten-Point Strategy	p. 40
Evaluating Vendors	p. 44
A Checklist to Maximize Your Vendor Selection Process	p. 45
Organizational Readiness: Resources Required for Success	p. 49
Budgeting for the Future	p. 52
Justification: Selling Your Boss on the Return on Investing in Email	p. 53
Test Your Knowledge	p. 55
Chapter 4 What Happens Once You Send Your Email	p. 57
Defining the Analytics Framework	p. 58
Start with Your Email Marketing Plan, and Expand It to Include Your Company Growth Plan	p. 59
What to Do If Something Goes Wrong	p. 64
So, What Do You Do When It Happens to You?	p. 67
Revisiting Your Budget	p. 68
The Email Marketing Database and Future Multichannel Efforts	p. 70
Phase 1 Awareness	p. 71
Phase 2 Engagement	p. 71
Phase 3 Consideration	p. 71
Phase 4 The Buy	p. 72
Making the Most of Your Email in a Multichannel Environment	p. 72
What This Means When You Are Setting Up Your Initial Email Database	p. 72
The Top Five Ways You Can Mess Things Up If You Are Not Really Careful	p. 74
Test Your Knowledge	p. 75
Chapter 5 Eight Key Drivers of Your Email Campaign	p. 77
Key Driver 1 Email Address Acquisition	p. 78
Your Website	p. 78
Other Channels	p. 82
Third-Party Sources	p. 84
Welcome to the Campaign!	p. 87
Key Driver 2 Creative/Copy	p. 88
The From Line	p. 89
Subject Lines	p. 89
The Spam Check	p. 90
The Width of Your Email Template	p. 91
The Length of Your Email Template: Work Above the Fold	p. 92
Email Creative Best Practices	p. 92
Key Driver 3 Making the Data Work	p. 93
Key Driver 4 Multichannel Integration	p. 95
Key Driver 5 Technology (Delivery, Deployment, and Design)	p. 96
Key Driver 6 Reporting/Analytics	p. 98
Key Driver 7 Privacy/Governmental Control	p. 100
State Registries	p. 101
Privacy Policy Best Practices	p. 101
Key Driver 8 Reactivation	p. 104
Test Your Knowledge	p. 105
Chapter 6 Preparing Your Email Marketing Strategy	p. 107
Week 1 Preparing Your Resource Arsenal	p. 108
Monday: Getting Smart (the Seven Essential Truths About Email Marketing)	p. 109
Tuesday: Evaluating Tools and Resources	p. 112
Wednesday: Budgeting	p. 116
Thursday: Related Marketing Initiatives	p. 119
Friday: Getting the Boss to Sign the Check	p. 123
Week 2 Building the Blueprint for Success	p. 124
Monday: Evaluating Your Current House File and File Size Needs	p. 125
Tuesday: Creating the Acquisition Plans	p. 126
Wednesday: Focusing on the Opt-in Process and Customer Preference Centers	p. 128
Thursday: Reviewing the Opt-out Process	p. 132
Friday: Making Sure Your Landing Pages Are a Good Place to Land	p. 133
Week 3 Counting Down to "Go Time"	p. 138
Monday: Mapping Out a Realistic Strategy	p. 139
Tuesday: Defining Your Data Transfer Process	p. 142
Wednesday: Making Sure Your Tracking Links Will Work	p. 144
Thursday: Checking for the Deliverability Basics	p. 147
Friday: Testing for Actionability	p. 151
Week 4 Testing Your Way to the First Campaign	p. 152
Monday: Choosing the Subject Line Strategy	p. 152
Tuesday: Making Sure Your Content Can Be Seen	p. 153
Wednesday: Ensuring Personalization Is Accurate	p. 156
Thursday: Remembering That Emails Get Forwarded and Saved	p. 158
Friday: Going Through the Success Checklist One More Time	p. 159
Test Your Knowledge	p. 159
Chapter 7 Month 2: Ensuring Success as You Launch Your Campaign	p. 161
Week 1 Sending Your First Campaign	p. 162
Monday: What to Do Once You Hit Send	p. 162
Tuesday: Reading Reports	p. 163
Wednesday: Managing Customer Service Replies	p. 166
Thursday: Matching Your Response Rates to Your Forecast and Plan	p. 167
Friday: Keeping Your Database Clean and Your Reputation Strong	p. 169
Week 2 Creating a Plan to Optimize Your Results	p. 171
Monday: What Your Reports Are Really Saying	p. 171
Tuesday: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Your Creative	p. 173
Wednesday: Pulling Together the Comprehensive Report	p. 178
Thursday: Optimizing the Opt-in Points on Your Website	p. 180
Friday: Creating Your Test	p. 184
Week 3 Measuring Email's Impact on Other Channels	p. 187
Monday: Measuring the Role of Email in a Customer's Purchase	p. 188
Tuesday: Determining the Value of Your Email Addresses and Campaigns	p. 193
Wednesday: Increasing Email Sending Costs to Improve Top-Line Results	p. 196
Thursday: Exploring Web Analytics and Email Integration	p. 198
Friday: Finding and Targeting Your Advocates	p. 202
Week 4 Promoting Your Email Results Within Your Organization	p. 206
Monday: Affecting Email Used in Other Parts of Your Organization	p. 206
Tuesday: Sharing Results with Your Online Peers	p. 209
Wednesday: Sharing Results with Your Offline Peers	p. 210
Thursday: Using Your Email Results for PR Purposes	p. 211
Friday: Looking Ahead to Dynamic Content	p. 213
Test Your Knowledge	p. 214
Chapter 8 Month 3: Adding Bells and Whistles	p. 215
Week 1 Using Email as a Feedback Tool	p. 216
Monday: Leveraging Email Surveys	p. 216
Tuesday: Designing an Email Survey	p. 217
Wednesday: Polls in Emails	p. 220
Thursday: Email Focus Groups	p. 221
Friday: Email-Driven Testimonials	p. 222
Week 2 Creating Video- and Audio-Enabled Emails	p. 226
Monday: Deciding Whether Using Audio or Video Is Right for Your Emails	p. 227
Tuesday: Building the Five Layered Emails	p. 228
Wednesday: Making Your Video Email Viral	p. 230
Thursday: Making Your Video Email an Integrated Part of a Larger Campaign	p. 232
Friday: Allowing Your Reader to Create Their Own Video Email	p. 233
Week 3 Creating Mobile Email	p. 234
Monday: Why Your Email Needs to be Mobile	p. 235
Tuesday: The Mobile Email Creative	p. 236
Wednesday: How Many Readers in Your Database Are Reading "on the Run"?	p. 239
Thursday: Defining Your Mobile Email Preference Center	p. 240
Friday: Making Your Current Email Strategy Work in a Mobile World	p. 241
Week 4 Creating Social Email	p. 243
Monday: When Email Is Used on Social Networks	p. 244
Tuesday: Response Guidelines for Social Email	p. 245
Wednesday: Reviewing Results for Social Email	p. 247
Thursday: Social Messaging: Thinking Inside the Box	p. 249
Friday: Keeping the Use of Social Email in "Check"	p. 251
Test Your Knowledge	p. 252
Chapter 9 Getting Ready for Year 2 and Beyond	p. 253
Iterative Financial Analysis: Analytics Over Time	p. 254
A Top-Down View of Annual Performance	p. 254
Analyzing Individual Subscriber Segment Performance	p. 255
List Health	p. 255
Financial Performance/Budget to Plan Performance	p. 255
The Necessity of Rebudgeting	p. 256
ESP Refresh: Evaluating Your ESP and Technology Partners	p. 257
Assessing Future Trends	p. 260
Journey On	p. 261
Appendix A Vendor Resource List	p. 263
Associations, Events, and Publications	p. 264
Email Service Providers	p. 264
Delivery Service Providers and Reputation and Accreditation Management Services	p. 265
Market Research, Agencies, and Consultants	p. 265
Technology Vendors	p. 266
Web Analytics Vendors	p. 266
Appendix B Email Checklists	p. 267
Email Design	p. 268
Content	p. 268
Subject Line	p. 268
Preheader/Header	p. 268
Preview Pane	p. 268
Message Construct	p. 269
Recovery Module	p. 269
Footer	p. 269
Code QA Testing	p. 269
Precheck HTML File	p. 269
Precheck Text File	p. 270
Conduct Rendering Testing	p. 271
Glossary	p. 273
Index	p. 284

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