PatronManager

I often think that I talk about the fundamentals of e-mail marketing too often. I say the same thing over and over. I do it because it seems to me that not enough people are really getting the basics right. E-mail marketing isn’t really that hard, but I often cringe at what I see in my own inbox.

I sometimes wonder if it’s just the non-profit world that is lagging behind. Apparently not.

My friend and colleague Stephanie Miller, VP of Strategic Services for Return Path, was at the Email Insider Summit, a corporate e-mail marketing event last week, and on her blog she summarizes her observations.

And when I read her post, I recognized that a lot of what I’ve been saying holds true in the corporate world. Here are a few of her key points:

1. Relevancy – you must make your messages targeted and relevant to the person receiving them.
2. Segmentation – one size doesn’t fit all. The idea of an e-mail "blast" to your whole list is quick and easy, but you’ll burn out your list pronto.
3. Sender Reputation Matters: That is to say, whoever is sending out your mail (e.g., PatronMail) has a "reputation" among the ISPs. And the better your vendor’s e-mail reputation, the better your mail will be delivered and not caught in spam filters. That’s why we’ve been proudly been part of the Sender Score Certified program since 1994, and our inbox delivery is typically between 95% and 98% in a world in which the industry benchmark is around 80%.

If you’re interested, I encourage you to read her full post here: http://www.returnpath.net/blog/2007/12/top-five-email-insider-summit.php