Marketing Profs

There's a heap of advice around on email marketing; numerous top-rate articles and books on planning, crafting, sending and evaluating permission-based email promotions and newsletters.

Assuming you follow that advice, then you're mailing persuasive, timely, relevant offers to responsive audiences. Your copy, content and design are perfect; all the technical elements and links work, and your delivery and subscriber management infrastructure is foolproof.

Hurrah! The satisfaction of a job well done.

Well, almost. There's a "but. (There's always a "but").

Email marketing isn't just about "email". Of course it's important to ensure the right email gets into the hands of the right recipient. That's the core of email marketing practice. But focusing entirely on the email ignores some of the other components that need to complement the typical email campaign.

In particular, you should consider whether your organization and website are hindering or helping your email marketing efforts?

1. Colleagues and confederates

A successful mailing impacts other parts of the business. Nearly all email marketing aims to generate an action, either in the short- or long-term: a click, a registration, a purchase, whatever. That action has consequences for others.

The question you need to ask is are these "others" ready for your success? Or will they snatch disaster from the jaws of email victory? Let's examine some examples...

A large promotional mailing might lead to surges in customer service inquiries: A jump in website visits or huge interest in particular products and services may cause a spike in the associated customer service needs.