Four Email Marketing Tactics That Matter in 2010	Visited: 722 5.0/5.0 (2 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Simone Collins July 12, 2010

According to a survey conducted by eMarketer, 2010 is going to be a much better year for email marketing and social media alike. The survey showed that 69% of respondents plan to increase spending on email marketing efforts. Pehaps not surprisingly, e-mail and social media are topping the list of marketing tactics that respondents will increase spending on in 2010.

I have put together a list of 4 email marketing tactics that are gaining even more ground this year.

1. Integrating Email With Social Media.
This email marketing tactic began to get momentum in 2009 as a way to boost customer reach. And it is spreading now like wildfire throughout 2010. So don't miss out on the opportunity to apply it into your online marketing strategy.

2. Focusing on Engaging Subscribers.

How to further engage your subscribers so that they become more active? Here are some things to consider:

Open Rates: Try increasing open rates by personalizing subject lines and including clear information in the “from” line, indicating who is sending the email.

Click Rates: To improve CTR, analyze if the design of the email is guiding subscribers to the CTA. Web heat maps, for example, can be used to distinguish areas of a Web page most frequently scanned by visitors. Also, give subscribers a reason to click, whether for additional content, a product coupon or a complimentary gift.

Number of Forwards: To increase the number of subscribers forwarding an email, make it as easy as possible to do so. Include the ability to forward the message via email, as well as the option to share on social networks.

3. Re-engaging Inactive Subscribers.
Some of your email subscribers can't be described as active. Virtually every email marketing list contains a group of inactive subscribers, those who aren’t opening emails but haven’t yet unsubscribed.

So it is very important to find ways to re-engage these sleepy subscribers. Consider the following email marketing tactics:

• Offer the inactive group a complimentary white paper or free trial of a product
• Create a sense of urgency with notifications that their subscription will end soon
• Segment the inactive subscribers and cut back on the frequency of email communications
• Send a series of opt-in engagement messages to the inactive group reminding them of the value of the emails

4. Creating Viral Campaigns.
Viral marketing isn’t a new concept. But today, with social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and Flickr, email messages have the potential to be shared like never before. Try out these email marketing tactics to help you spread the message to a maximum number of customers.

Take some time to reconsider your email marketing tactics and try to make some improvements. Could any of these 4 ideas be integrated into your marketing mix to improve results?