It is no longer a matter of clever slogans and appealing advertisements — consumers are demanding a realtionship with their favorite companies and brands.  In today’s market, it is all about RELATIONSHIP BUILDING.

Earlier this year Jupiter Research suggested that email marketing will reach 2.1 billion by 2012. In large part, this growth will be due to consumer use of social media sites and the attempts of marketing professionals to reach this audience. According to Forrester Research, “in five years consumers will opt-in to receive more than 9,000 email marketing messages annually.”

Susan Coppersmith, Director of Sales at iEntry, Inc said, “companies that have the most success within our B2B network opt for more complex email campaigns, which include follow up sponsorships, banners, and dedicated email. They understand they need to invest in their target if they want their target to invest in them.”

Key Growth Areas for Email Marketing

One key area of email marketing that is expected to experience a vast growth is Retention Email. What is Retention Email? These emails are permission based, meaning they have been acknowledged and accepted by the recipient. Forrester reveals Retention Email is expected to account for more than one-third of all marketing messages reaching consumer in-boxes by 2014.

Where else in email marketing will you see change? In newsletters either supported by ads or opt-in ad sponsored. Due to falling print circulation, ad revenue, and readership, these kinds of newsletters are expected to experience a heavy growth cycle within the next five years.

The impact of social media websites on email marketing cannot be overlooked. As a matter of fact, in large part, social media sites are reinforcing the growth spurt of email marketing. Many companies will be searching for ways in which to integrate email marketing campaigns and social media sites. The key will be to reach an audience that demands personalization and novelty, just like technology consumers are ever changing.

One thing is certain, email marketing is a sure fire way to reach consumers! According to a study conducted by Epsilon and ROI Research -
84 percent of recipients liked receiving email from companies with whom they have subscribed to their e-newsletters.

A Successful Email Marketing Campaign

A successful email marketing campaign will not only entice your consumer to take action, it will keep them coming back for more! Consider the following when conducting any email marketing campaign: track your campaign, consider spam filters, dazzle with subject lines, provide valuable content, and lastly provide timely content. Remember, an email marketing campaign is more than an email and much more than advertising, it is an attractive and informative way of letting consumers know about your company’s services.

*Did You Know - online advertising contributes $300 billion to the U.S. economy. It generated $3.4 billion in 2008.

Here are the most common reasons we end up having to shut down an agency’s client for too many SPAM complaints:

• Old lists (Surprise factor) – If your client has been collecting email addresses on their website for years, and this is their first email campaign to the list, there will be people who do not remember the client – (“Who the heck are you, and how did you get my email address?”). These people will report you for SPAMMING. You want to avoid the surprise factor as much as possible with email marketing.
• SPAM traps – Some ISPs take very old email addresses they assume are not being used anymore, and they post them to public websites. Then they wait for SPAM-bots to scrape them, and SPAM them. As soon as they get SPAM to one of these “SPAM trap” addresses, they block the SPAMMER. This is why you never send to a list more than a year or two old. It is also why you should never buy an email list, and why you should never scrape emails off of websites. The effect of hitting a SPAM trap is devastating and fast.
• Tradeshow lists – When people attend a tradeshow, they usually buy their tickets online. They submit their email address. The tradeshow host then gives their email address to the companies who exhibit at the show. Companies can theoretically use this list to find prospects that plan to attend the show, and reach out to them. That is fine, as long as the communication is one-to-one. But if they send an email campaign to the entire list, it is SPAM, and they will get reported for it.
• Outlook address book dumps – This one is extremely common with small businesses that do not have big fancy customer databases. They just manage everything in their Microsoft Outlook Address Book. The problem is their address book does not let them export a list of “only my customers” or “only people who opted in for email marketing.” It exports everybody, including “grandma, the guy I met at a tradeshow three years ago, my tech support who I emailed two years ago, and my ex-wife.” These people will report you for SPAM. But it is not limited to small businesses. You may tell your client, “Okay, we’re prepping the big email campaign now. I’m going to need your customer email list.” Your client will then ask their entire company sales team, to “Give me your lists of customers by close of business, so we can get our exciting email newsletter out!” Guess what that sales team is going to do. They are going to dump their entire address book out and send it. They are not going to spend the time to sort out opt-ins vs. non opt-ins.
• Sales force dumps – This is similar to the “Address Book Dump” above, but at least you have some sort of classification (theoretically) of email lists. Be on the lookout for clients who dump all their different lists into one big one. Ask them if they combined their prospects list, leads list, qualified leads list, customer list, and subscriber lists, then tell them how dangerous that is.
• Purchased lists – It is a real no-brainer that purchasing 30 million emails from some seedy, offshore company is a dumb idea. The thing is most clients buy lists from local networking organizations, or tradeshows, or publications they advertise in. They sound innocent, and totally legit. And sometimes, the intent of the list seller is to let you send one-to-one communications (not SPAM). But the reality is most people buy those lists to send unsolicited bulk email. So ask your client if the list was purchased. If it was purchased, then whoever sold them the list needs to send the bulk email. Or, the client needs to send totally different emails, one at a time. Unacceptable responses to this include, “But this list is all legit”, and “But this list is all opt-in”, and “But this list was very, very expensive”, and “But this list came from a reputable industry source that everybody knows.”
• Organization lists – Your client may be a member of a realtors’ organization, or a local business group. Organizations will often give you their membership directory whenever you join. This is for one-to-one networking. It is not mass subscribing them all to email marketing. The most vicious SPAM complaints can come from these lists, because often your client’s competitors will be members of the same organization.
• Chambers of Commerce lists – When you see a small/new company that has an inexplicably large email list, it is probably from their local chamber. Again, the lists they give out are for one-to-one networking with other business owners, not mass email marketing.
• Lists from their previous ESP– If you are helping a client switch from another email service provider to Emercury.net, make sure they are exporting the latest clean version of their subscriber list. Some clients will mistakenly export their entire list of subscribers (even those who previously unsubscribed, or bounced). Sometimes it’s because the they use does not give them the opportunity to download a “clean” list. We do not know if that is just poor functionality or if they are trying to lock people in. In those cases, you will need to download the full list, plus the unsubscribe list, and the bounce list, and then clean them manually before importing.

*Did You Know – ISPs want to reduce the barrage of unwanted e-mail sent to their users, permission-based or not. Spam complaints are the number-one factor that harms deliverability with major ISPs.

Whenever a client sends a bad email campaign, their recipients will click the “Report Spam” button in their email programs. Most people think nothing of it.  They figure it just teaches their Spam filter to throw away the email.  But what really happens behind the scenes is this:

1.     A complaint is sent to their ISP (like AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, Earthlink, etc).  The report has a copy of the email in it.
2.    The ISP scans the emails header, and tracks down the originating server (if you use Emercury.net to send the campaign, the ISP traces it to us).
3.     The ISP sends us a feedback loop (FBL) warning.
4.     If an email campaign causes too many Spam complaints (about one per thousand recipients), the ISP blocks future emails from the sending server.

Feedback Loops (FBL) like the one described above are being used more and more by large ISPs.  The reason is simple.  ISPs are dealing with billions of pieces of Spam daily.  They cannot sort through what is legit and what is not. Technology can only sort through so much.  So they put the ultimate decision in the hands of the recipients. If a recipient says it’s Spam (even if they opted-in for it) then it is spam.  That is the end of the story. Of course people make mistakes, which is why they set thresholds for complaint levels before blocking senders.  But the point – technical and legal definitions of Spam do not matter anymore. All that matters are what recipients think is “unwanted”. So your clients better be sending material people specifically requested.

This is why email marketing services (like Emercury.net) are setup to receive FBL alerts from ISPs, and then we automatically clean complainers from your list.  Too many complaints from one campaign, and we can get blocked. And since you are sharing our system with many other users from around the globe, we have to be rigorous about monitoring FBL complaints.

You know how they say “You are more likely to die in a car accident than a plane crash”?  The same concept applies with abuse complaints.  You may think your client is safe and sound as long as they are not sending nasty pharmaceutical or online gambling Spam. But it is far more likely you will get blocked by ISPs because of complaints from your own subscribers about seemingly innocent newsletters. So it is important to know what makes people complain, and how to prevent it.

*Did You Know - a safelist is an email mailing list that people join (of their own free will) which enables them to send email offers to all the other members in exchange for agreeing to receive email from those other members. So you get to mail, but you have to agree to receive mail too. And no one gets spammed.

Warning Signs Your Client Is Spamming
A guide for creative professionals (with clients who misbehave) –
Part I (of MANY)…

Emercury.net is an email marketing solution originally created in 2002, to help creative agencies (web developers, freelancers, advertising agencies, etc.) to send professional HTML email campaigns, on behalf of their clients.

We have helped numerous agencies assist their clients with email.

Unfortunately, we have had to shutdown many agencies for their clients’ bad email marketing practices: sloppy list management, poorly designed emails, purchased lists, and old lists. These bad practices get the client and the agency reported for Spamming, and sometimes they get blacklisted. In some cases, we have seen their mistakes tarnish their reputation and follow them even when they move around from server to server, or switch email marketing services.

Luckily, most email marketing nightmares like this are preventable. You just need to know what the warning signs are, and how to deal with them.

What exactly is Spam?

Seems like a silly question. We all get Spam, and we all know what it is. But do you know the technical definition? You need to know it, so that when challenged by a stubborn client, you can easily explain why they are Spamming.

Email is Spam when it is:
1. Unsolicited (meaning the recipient did not opt-in for it), and,
2. Sent in bulk (meaning its part of a larger collection of messages that all have substantively identical content).

Source:  www.spamhaus.org/definition.html

Keep in mind those two criteria. Some clients will argue that, “I send unsolicited emails to prospects all the time from my computer.” And you can tell them that is not Spam, because it was not sent in bulk to 500 other prospects.

Some clients will tell you, “But I get Spam all the time! How come I can’t send it too?” Initially, that sounds like an extremely stupid reply, and it use to make me want to punch them in the gut. But I have learned during the years most newbie email marketers actually think Spammers are doing something that technically makes it legal and acceptable to send Spam. Like there is some kind of “Spam license” you can apply for, or “Spam system” you can use to make it okay. But if you explain to them that most Spam is actually sent illegally, via virus-infected, hijacked computers called “botnets,” they get the picture.

*Did You Know – the United States still leads all countries in Spam.  So although countries like China, Russia, and Brazil are touted as being the origin of the new wave of Spam, they have a long way to go to catch up to the United States.

Across the Board

While many of us think of databases as merely a computerized storage facility for names, addresses, and telephone numbers, the opposite is true. Today, more and more databases are being built not only to store, but to also analyze information.  No longer are they restricted to large company’s and government facilities, databases are used by online schools, commerce retailers, neighborhood salons, restaurants and a bevy of industries. As a matter of fact, databases are one of the fastest growing segments in development.

This segment of development will continue to grow, because the need to know customers will never go away. For instance, databases can contain information about a customer’s likes, dislikes, shopping patterns, family size, age groups, and much more. This can assist a retailer with target marketing and product recommendations based on age and favorites. This also can help a retailer understand any number of important factors for a customer’s satisfactory shopping experience.
But, what other advantages can a detailed database offer? Let us talk about online education, a rapidly growing industry. More and more people are turning to online courses, because they are convenient and affordable. Online education databases offer a full list of courses, course descriptions, schedules, etc. Now, online education databases offer course recommendations and on campus suggestions for courses unavailable online.

What to Do

You have decided your business will benefit from a database, now what? Very few of us know how time consuming and rigorous creating a database can be. According to an online article, “It is not wise to dive directly into a physical design without first conducting an in-depth examination of the data needs of the business.”  Furthermore, “a proper database design cannot be thrown together quickly by novices.  A practiced and formal approach to gathering data requirements and modeling data is needed.” At times the wealth of information that will be stored on a database can be overwhelming. Precision and careful attention to every single field is due; otherwise the results can be horrific.

Therefore, when approaching a development company with a database project it is imperative to have all of the information you wish to have in your database available from the beginning.  It is NEVER a good idea to leak information to your developers while the project is in progress – this can severely delay your project and frustrate all parties concerned. So, DO give all of the correct information to your development providers at the start of your project.

With the growing number of information maintained on databases there is the need for tighter security.  How many of us hesitate to put our social security number or home address on an online application? The truth is database development is becoming more secure as technological advancements occur. However, the threat to database security is very much a concern for many of us. So, PLEASE ask your development provider about security measures and precautions.   Inquiring about the security and vulnerabilities of your database is a sign you care about protecting your customers. Your project developer will understand and appreciate your concern.

*Did You Know – Web Development is the larger picture where Web Designing is just a small part of it.  Not taking away the credit from a good designed website, it cannot really answer important queries and does not provide the interactive functionalities that a good website, which is developed using the right technology can.

In spite of the downtrodden economy, Bill McKiernan, founder of Cybersource says, “Broad, secular trends are benefiting ecommerce businesses currently. The recession has created more bargain-conscious consumers who are seeking better prices from online merchants versus, say, what they get in the local mall.  We’re also seeing more individuals supplementing their income with niche online start-ups, which are creating more products for online consumers to choose from.  And larger merchants are recognizing that it is more cost effective to sell online than in a physical location.  In short, we’re seeing more shops online, more products online and more consumers shopping for them online.” What exactly does this mean; it means that you better get your Ecommerce store in shape because the competition has just heated up.

Show, Tell, Engage
So, you have an ecommerce store, but you are wondering whether or not you have what it takes to succeed online. Well, the good news is you can always turn to a trusted designer to improve what you feel may be lacking. One trend that is distinguishing good shopping carts from the not so good is the design. Online shoppers turn to the Internet for cheaper prices, but keep in mind they also go online for a different experience. The online shopping experience must integrate technology, it should be more than just an online directory.

Seal of Approval
The look and feel of your online store is of great importance; equally as important is the opinions of your customers. Many online retailers have reached success by having their customers spread the word through: product reviews, product recommendations, and additional product suggestions. What does this mean, take a look at: www.barnesandnoble.com as an example of this trend.  When you allow your customers to voice their opinions, you can acquire first hand knowledge of what products are selling, why these products are selling, who is buying them, and what other products these customers are likely to buy. While you can get some of this information from monthly sales reports, there is another benefit to this method. Good product reviews and recommendations spread like wildfire, customers end up doing the sale for you. This is certainly a feature that can be of great benefit to your ecommerce website, definitely one you should discuss with your design provider.

Instant Resolution
While we all strive for rave reviews and consistent customer satisfaction, this is not always the case. Customer service is an important part of any retail or online shopping experience.  For this very reason, many online shopping stores have the chat feature on their websites. What does this mean? If a customer is experiencing difficulty or has a question, the customer can easily access a customer service representative to answer questions. This is a huge advantage over physical store locations, shoppers can now access customer service without waiting, fighting for attention, and most significantly only when they need and want it. This trend toward instant customer service is not going away and customers are letting us know – they want to chat.

*Did You Know – the week of May 11th, 2009 registered 68,485,609 new website domains?

After much deliberation, you have decided you need a website for your business. Unfortunately, you do not know a thing about design, color schemes, fonts, graphics, or content. Well, luckily I can help you.  Let me tell you a something about website design and the trends that are making a splash across the World Wide Web.

Does Color Matter?

The look of your website conveys a strong message to visitors before they read a single word of content. If you have a creative and appealing website it tells visitors you are someone who has all the bases covered. You and I know you are allowed one opportunity to make a first impression.  If you are going to spend money on creating an online presence for your business, you better get it right the first time. Very often people are either turned on or turned off by certain colors.  Have you noticed most business websites stay clear of color, opting for plain whites, muted blacks, and safe grays? Although, these colors are generally accepted as representations of a serious business, they can say BLAND and NON-CREATIVE! How about demonstrating that you can think outside of the box with these colors:  Dark Citron, Slate Gray, Vibrant Terracotta, Palace Blue, or Lucite Green?

Vertical or Horizontal

Now that you have all of your colors selected, do you know how you want information on your website to be viewed? What do I mean? How about you take a look at these websites, www.fedex.com or www.pepsi.com? What is different about these two websites? If you guessed the horizontal navigation, you are correct! Once again, this simply shows your costumers you have given thought to the smallest details and you care about their experience on your website.  Honestly, how often are you surprised by the navigation features on a website? Unfortunately, I imagine not too often.

Call to Action Button

A few words can make all the difference: Download Now, Trial Offer, Free, And Click Here! Now more than ever before, a call to action must be direct, visible, easy to understand, and complete.  If you want your customers or potential customers to take certain action, remember these rules for your call to action button: the color should stand out from the rest (contrast), it should be conveniently located (above the fold), the language should be short and to the point, it should stand alone, and it should be slightly larger than the rest in size.

Forms Make Them Simple!

Have you ever filled out an online form with pointless questions? We all have! Now, when most people think of website design, they certainly do not think about their forms. But, did you know the fewer fields on a form, the higher the conversion rate?   Think about it, the form field is a call to action for clients and perspective clients and it is also a “customer engagement page.” This being said, your form page should do the following: highlight benefits to clients, keep it simple, clarify privacy policy, provide context, clarify fields, allow feedback, provide progress indicators, and provide strong calls to action. Most people think of the landing page as the most important, that is not wrong, but it is not entirely right. As I just mentioned, a form page requires patience, private information, and persistence from visitors – make it easy and interesting.  The importance of forms will be a main focus for the rest of this year and years to come.

*Did You Know – in 2008, more than half a million people chose Iris Blue as the color for their website design?

Online studies show website content is worth studying.  Why?  It is valuable.

Clients already know content writing is a viable tool for improving website traffic, but is it their best way to convert traffic into profit? In order for this to work, you will need articles that inform people about what you are marketing, and quality writing which asks your users to participate; because with more traffic, you should have higher sales and increased advertising revenue.  You will find good content is not only worth reading – it is priceless.

One key benefit of quality content is the potential to improve a websites search engine ranking.  Engaging and well researched articles attract links from authoritative websites. Good writing also leads to conversions.  It can do so by directly targeting visitors with sales-driven copywriting, or by using interesting articles which encourage people to spend more time at a website, browse through its pages, and even recommend the site to others.

Content must be done right, to be effective.

If you are intending to implement the right on page technique for your website, you have to accept a complete change of focus for the copy.  Rather than “we” and “us” the copy should be directed toward the visitor while still communicating important benefits about buying from the company.

Organic searchers who click your pages are highly qualified visitors to your site.  They are more likely to make a purchase than some other  visitors you receive.

All other things being equal, pages where query terms appear in important places, such as the page title, tend to rank higher than pages where the terms are buried at the page bottom of the page.  Pages that feature query words in titles and initial paragraphs are said to have high keyword prominence, because the keywords appear in more prominent places than on other pages.

The title of your page is the most important part of the Web page to a search engine.  The title is what displays in the search results page, and it is shown in the window title for the browser.  You can think of a Web page‘s title as similar to the title of a magazine article.  Therefore most search engines give more weight to terms found in bold headings, and to italicized or colored text,assuming these are more important occurrences of the terms. Headings are most similar to bold section headings inside a magazine article that break up the running text and indicate what the paragraphs below are about.

Body text includes all the words that appear on the page, but body text that appears closer to the top of the page is considered more important than text found in the middle or at the bottom of the page.  Pictures on the page also contain alternate text that search engines use to “learn” about each picture.

Web pages generally contain a summary some; search engines still show under the title in the search results.  Most search engines, however, no longer show the description nor give it any more weight than body text.

According to Mountainline — The art of writing good and compelling content can be split into seven categories.  If you take all of these things into account then your chance of conversions will be much higher.  Below is the list:

1. Communication

One of the biggest things that people forget is the art of communication.  It is important your message is clear and communicated in a way people can understand.  If you fail to make it clear then people will not stop to figure it out and you will likely lose them.

2. Audience

Think about whom you are pitching to and target them.  Think about what you like, you like websites that openly sell to you.  We mean pushing the sale down your throat so you cannot avoid it.  Most people do not like this and so you need to think about what your audience will want.  This can mean doing a profile of the type of people you are targeting and what they would like to see.

3. Focus

Many websites will fill their pages with lots of irrelevant information.  It might be interesting to you but do your visitors really want to go through all this to find out what you are offering?  The answer to this is probably no.  It is important to focus the attention of your visitors on the message you are trying to get across.  This means you need to keep everything clear and concise.

4. Language

Remember the language you use will say a lot about you.  You should try and include words that will appeal to your audience.  For example if your audience is the under 25 demographic the language you use will be completely different to a target audience of the older than 65.  Think about how your target audience would speak and write your content in that way.

5. Performance

This is all about how your content is delivered.  You need to put a show on to appeal to your audience.  Whether this is through the addition of images, video, colours, bolding, or anything else you need to think about how it is appearing.

6. Personality

The most important rule of sales is people buy people and so you need to get your personality across.  This will help you to make a connection with your audience and increase your chance of conversions.  It is important your audience know who you are and what you do.

7. Psychology

People do not want to be sold to and actually prefer to buy.  This seems a bit cryptic but basically they want to buy something they want.  The best way to do this is to tap into their psyche and make them want your products or services.  This will help people to buy from you much more easily.

*Did You Know – there are 86,400 seconds in a day.  On average, it takes 1-5 seconds to say a word (if you know how to pronounce it correctly and/or if it is a short or long word).  If someone went from the beginning of the day to the end saying completely different words (probably using the dictionary), they would say 17,280-86,400 words.

For those of you who are not familiar with Firefox, let me explain. Firefox is a free web browser just like Internet Explorer. As of March 29, 2009 22.05% of Internet users use Firefox. What exactly does this mean? It means that Firefox is second only to Internet Explorer and that is quickly changing!

As I mentioned, Firefox is the preferred web browser for many Internet users these days, but why? Most often, the main reason that is cited for Firefox usage is security. With growing concerns about hackers, spyware and malicious websites, security is a top priority for Firefox users. “According to Wikipedia, “Firefox uses a sandbox security model, and limits scripts from accessing data from other websites based on the same origin policy.” Furthermore, “it uses SSL/TLS to protect communications with web servers implementing strong cryptography when using the https protocol. Lastly, support for the use of smartcards for authentication purposes is also provided. As if all of this were not enough, The Modzilla Foundation offers a “bug bounty” to researchers who discover strong security holes in Firefox. Compared to Internet Explorer, Firefox has less security vulnerabilities.

So, what else is great about Firefox? The second reason why Firefox is quickly becoming the preferred web browser is because of a customizable toolbar. Allow me to elaborate, while Firefox does not immediately offer some of the features, of Internet Explorer or other web browsers, it does give you options. Firefox relies on the extension system; this allows users to customize their web browser according to their needs.   At first, it may feel like you are missing out on something simply because many of us are used to the jam packed Internet Explorer toolbar. But, let us be honest here, how many of us actually use or even know how to use half of the things on the Internet Explorer toolbar? So, if you do not use it why should you be stuck with it? Instead, you can prioritize your Firefox toolbar to display only those features you want!

Another characteristic many users find important is spell-check.  Now, I know many of you are thinking why do I need spell-check when browsing the Internet? Well, the truth is you may or may not use this attribute, but it is nice to have it. The built in spell-checker allows Internet users to verify the spelling of text entered into Web forms without opening up a separate program. Another feature that may or may not be useful to Internet users is the zoom facet. Easily accessible from the view menu, this zoom feature allows site visitors to zoom in and out of entire pages. Furthermore, site visitors can adjust the appearance of images and scale the page layout. Best of all, Firefox remembers these settings and displays them whenever you visit the specific site.

All of the aforementioned Firefox features have to do with users’ interaction, but what else does Firefox offer? For designers, Firefox is a great tool, according to an online article, “the web developer add-on is likely one of the most powerful tools for web developers, and it is a must have for an effective 2.0 marketing strategy. It is a great gizmo for search engine marketers and optimizers who are interested in legitimate ways to make money online because of the ability to dissect a page and understand how it is seen from a search engine perspective.”

What else can Firefox do to help you get the best out of your website? Rank Checker has a simple interface and allows you to get important information on search engine ranking for your given key words and domains. This is a very useful tool if you want to ensure your website ranks highly across a multitude of search engines.

As we have mentioned, Firefox covers a multitude of extensions that allow you to customize your search engine experience. What about your webmasters? “Firefox can in fact become the web developer’s best friend. For instance, Firebug – allows you to edit, debug, and monitors CSS HTML and JavaScript live in any webpage. Fireshot – allows you to have multiple screen shots of a web page. HTML Validator – allows you to validate your HTML and CSS to work according to standards. Yslow - analyzes web pages and figures out why they are working slowly based on Yahoo rules for high performance web sites. Lastly, but certainly not least, IE View – allows you to check your website on Firefox and Internet Explorer easily and quickly.

By no means does this article begin to cover the many benefits of Firefox that is up to you to explore. We all know, an informed consumer is a smart consumer, so get out there and explore your options!

*Did You Know  - the energy spent in sending and deleting spam is equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes in the United States?

We have all heard the phrase, “rules are meant to be broken,” right? Well, in some cases, rules really are meant to be broken. In the previous two newsletters, we gave you some rules that are generally applied to email marketing. But, are there any exceptions to those rules? When is it a good idea to follow your own instincts? As a client, it is extremely important t you know what you want for your website, email marketing campaign, or newsletter. Remember, a service provider is there to bring your ideas to life and give you sound advice on how to proceed. If you know what you want, you are more likely to get it!

Here are some familiar names that are doing email marketing by their own set of rules.

Costco, we have all heard of this company, right? Well, Costco has bypassed the all important rule that says you do not want to saturate your preview pane with too much information. Instead, Costco offers quite a bit of detailed information in this area. Why does this work for Costco? Maybe because we all recognize this brand and the services offered. Many of us will take the extra step, click on a link, and scroll up to the next column to see what Costco has to offer.

Who else is blazing their own trail? Nordstrom is following a different set of rules when it has to do with subject lines. Subject lines typically contain 35- 45 characters. However, the subject line for Nordstrom’s email marketing reads, “GET FREE Shipping with Any Shoe Purchase.” This immediately sets up the viewer for an offer for free shipping, but instead “sets up the subscriber for the sight of great shoes.” While the content and intent of the email is not exactly clear, the shorter subject line and enticing header is something that gets a reaction from people.

How about Pandora? According to best practices, “Pandora’s copy is long, and the message is not direct (it doesn’t steer subscribers back to the website). Because Pandora is a free service that does not need to upsell to already-engaged subscribers, the company uses its welcome message to highlight its human face and to introduce its accessible customer service.” In other words, Pandora does not need to re-sell services to those already receiving their email marketing. Instead, Pandora reinforces the importance of customer service human interaction.

Lastly, we take a look at Backcountry. This company basically spoofs itself and the whole idea of “call to action” by being irreverent, “light it up.” Yes, normally any call to action would be highlighted and right at the top, where the subscriber can clearly see what is being asked of him or her. However, there are times when a more lighthearted approach does the trick. Backcountry is the perfect example of this approach.

So, what does all of this mean to you and your business? It means not every rule will apply to you or to the type of business you are promoting. How you promote your business depends greatly on the audience you are trying to reach, the services you are providing, and branding. The best way to conduct any email marketing campaign is to discuss your goals with a savvy email marketing provider. A good provider will not only listen – they will also offer you sound advice on how to reach your target audience.

*Did You Know – email ad spending will increase to $677 million in 2011, from $492 million in 2008?