Six Steps to Instant Revenue: Successful Email Marketing Is Right Under Your Nose

If you believe that you know everything there is to know about email marketing, then you also probably believe Al Gore invented the Internet.

Unfortunately, for most marketers, email marketing remains an educated guess predicated on seasonal and industry trends. What most marketers do not realize is that they have an opportunity to send out intelligent, high-performance email campaigns based on true consumer desires. All they have to do is take advantage of information that is readily available.

Online behavior is not limited to purchasing activity alone. To truly understand someone's buying potential, you need to see more than that. You need to know what they are looking at, what they are searching for, and what they have recommended to friends. These online activities are just a few of the behaviors that allow marketers to gain a better understanding of what consumers are truly interested in.

The bottom line is that if marketers are not sending the right offers to their customers, they are essentially leaving dollars on the table as well as alienating customers.

There are also hidden costs associated with poor email campaigns. It may cost just a few dollars to send an offer out to a few thousand recipients, but if marketers continue to send out irrelevant email campaigns, reliable customers will chose to opt out—and recouping those lost subscribers is costly.

That's why marketers must retain customers and not degrade their experience by sending them irrelevant emails. Marketers can take advantage of online-behavior intelligence and send out targeted email campaigns at a lower frequency with higher relevancy. When they do, everyone wins.

Here are six strategies that marketers can immediately adopt by using existing online customer information to create highly successful email campaigns.

1. You Know You Want It

When customers go online, they often place items in and out of virtual shopping carts as they pick and choose what they are going to buy. These abandoned items are still relevant to the consumer. Marketers should send monthly emails featuring these abandoned products in targeted email campaigns. These campaigns are especially successful if these items go on sale.

2. Thank You, Come Again!

Marketers can thank loyal customers who have sent merchandise information to their friends through a "your friend has received your email" note. In addition to personalizing the experience for customers, this is a great opportunity to introduce new offers or feature sales.

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