By Sonny Kim, Fulgent New Media, Inc.

You must have heard email marketing is truly the most effective in generating leads and that you must try it because you need to generate as many leads as possible! Now what??

This is the first installment of upcoming series on planning and executing email rental campaigns.

Getting Started. What to expect:

There are two sources available to rent B2B permission-based e-mail lists. One type of list comes from traditional list publishers such as IDG, Bill Communications, and Cahners or traditional list managers. E-mails sent via these list sources offer a “from” line with the publisher’s name and bring the advertiser value through the publisher’s relationship with the recipient. Many sources include an introduction to differentiate a marketing message with messages such as “The following information is from one of our industry advertisers”.

The other type, double opt-in compiled lists from such companies as Yesmail, and Focalex, feature the marketer’s company name in the “from” line (we’ll cover opt-in vs double opt-in, vs opt-out in a later issue…check out the latest guidelines from the DMA here.) Picking the right list source as well as reviewing how the user’s email was acquired will play a critical role in your results. However, no matter which list you choose, the subject line of the e-mail plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the campaign.

The primary measurement and evaluation tools applied to B2B e-mail marketing focus on click-through and pass-along rates. However, there are other tracking capabilities available to measure recipients who have seen the email ad and then visited the marketer’s site to take action. Above and beyond the tracking capability is analyzing the quality of these leads (suspects) and eventually turning them into customers.

In our future segments, we will break down each of the areas outlined in more detail with resources for effective email executions. The key step to planning a successful email campaign is to carefully identify your sources, your targets, a great direct response message and a plan on how you will continue that dialogue with your leads. Create a roadmap to identify how you’ll be executing at every stage of the email cycle to meet your specific marketing objective.

Greater results may also be obtained by weaving together online tools and offline marketing vehicles to create a truly integrated marketing program and to maintain cohesive messaging and response.

Sonny Kim
Fulgent New Media, Inc.
545 Boylston Street, 2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 262-5255
http://www.fulgentnewmedia.com 
sonny@fulgentnm.com