Karen Scharf | Small Business Marketing Consultant

On-line marketer, ProspectZone, increased open rates by 28% and click-throughs by 53% in a recent split-test. What can you learn from their results?

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It’s true that email marketing can get pretty technical. We’ve got HTML coding, and multi-part MIME messages, and cross browser compatibility, and designing for preview panes, and blacklists and blocklists and SPF records… It’s enough to make non-techie marketers throw up their hands and give up on the thought of ever improving their email performance.

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According to a 2007 study, 64% of key decision makers are reading your email messages on their Blackberries or PDAs. To grab their attention, and make sure your mail gets read, it’s important to follow these guidelines:

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You’ve set up a beautiful email campaign. Your copy is tight, your graphics are eye-catching, you’re just sure the click-through rate will be more than respectable.

But are you sure your readers are seeing what you see?

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Dynamic IP addresses are used by individuals with dial-up or DSL accounts on personal computers. Unfortunately, they are also used by spammers. So if a bulk of mail is coming from a dynamic IP address, there’s a good chance the mail will be sent immediately to the spam folder.

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A very interesting study recently released by Alchemy Worx has caused me to re-think what I’ve been teaching about subject line length. In the past, I’ve advised that you keep your email subject lines to no more than 35 characters.

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Businesses enjoy a $43.52 return on every dollar spent in email marketing. That’s the strongest ROI-yielding direct marketing tactic, and it’s a result that even small businesses on a small business budget certainly can’t ignore.

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Your email subject line has to serve two very powerful purposes. First, it has to get your message delivered into the inbox rather than getting trapped by a spam filter or sent to the junk folder. Secondly, it has to entice your reader to open your email and read the message.

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The other day I was working with a client to develop his 2009 business and marketing plan, and he told me he wanted to eliminate his email newsletter from his marketing strategy. He figured it was no longer necessary since he was going to explore web 2.0 tactics and social media marketing.

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The first thing you must do is identify the overall goal of the email marketing campaign you launched. What did it specifically focus on? What was your…

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