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Thinking as the recipient of the message while creating your email will
help you gear your message more effectively to the audience at hand.
Key questions to keep in mind when creating the "golden" message are:
“What are the messages I delete right away?” and “what are the messages
that keep my attention and motivate me to do something?” These
questions are important because you want to send emails that you
yourself would like to receive; just as is stated in the golden rule.
Here are a few other things to keep in mind to maximize your email
marketing campaign without breaking the golden rule.
The Five Deadly
Sins of Email Marketing: * Thou shalt not be obscure– Are you more likely to read an email sent by the “Bill Gates” or one sent by “wldfkjasds”? Personalization goes both ways; when the recipient of your email thinks of you as an individual wanting to communicate to another individual, the chance of them reading and “buying” your message is much higher than if the message were sent by an anonymous sender from yahoo or hotmail accounts or by a spam relay service. Remember: business relationships ought to be built on trust—and it is easier to trust “Bill” than “wldfkjasds.” * Thou shalt not be “unnecessary”– In order to build a strong rapport with your customer, appeal to their needs then provide a way of meeting that need. Why send an email about mutual funds to college students that are looking for loans to borrow? The message appears irrelevant and may be deleted quickly. However, “needs” is a very subjective notion, and you can use your creativity to create such a “need” in the recipient of your email and turn them into a potential client. How about a subject line such as “Turn Your Pizza Money into Solid Investments!” Appeal to the college student by telling them how little they have to pay in order to begin a mutual fund account, and how it will pay off in the long run. Just think, skipping out on pizza once a week will turn into a million dollars in the future—wouldn’t you think twice about a message like that? In applying the golden rule creatively, you have just turned a seemingly irrelevant email message into a possible sale. * Thou shalt not be technically inept Is anything less useful then sending an email message that cannot be read? Is there anything more annoying then receiving such a message? No one ever "intends" to send a message like that, but it often happens to email marketers who may be a bit technically inept. Make sure that you’re up to par technically so that the messages you are sending are visually appealing as well as browser appropriate. If you are sending out an email message in HTML format, make sure to test the messages in all of the possible browsers to make sure that the readers can view it properly. If all else fails, use simple text messages. Despite its lack of visual appeal, it's better that the email message gets across than for it to be a bunch of incomprehensible codes, right?
* Thou shalt not harvest email addresses–
Don’t you hate getting emails you didn’t sign up for?
Well, so do the recipients of the emails that you may be
sending. Not only is it difficult to target your audience when you are
randomly “harvesting” emails, but your recipient may be put off by the
fact that they’re receiving an email without their consent. In order to
be personal and relevant in the messages you’re sending, it is necessary
for you to know to whom you’re sending the message. Opt-in lists are
often interest specific and may provide the demographics of the email
recipients; they are a more professional option than email addresses
obtained by random harvesting.
And Make Money
Too? Webmasters Manual:
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