Viva la Email

For my first email marketing book review I chose Sign Me Up! A Marketer’s Guide to Email Newsletters That Build Relationships and Boost Sales by Matt Blumberg, Tami Monahan Forman and Stephanie A. Miller. I was advised by the kind person who gave it to me that it was more for covering the basics of constructing a successful email newsletter and the peripherals that go along with that. What I found was a bit more interesting, not you’re typical 1-2-3 this is how you ride a bike kind of book. I was very pleased by the candid tone within the book and the emphasis on best practices and relational focus of each chapter. As a participant in the email industry for more than a handful of years now, I realize the value in creating an open communication with the list base, not just sending emails for the sake of it.

Breaking open the cover and diving into the table of contents I was impressed with the break down of topics. While this may be a ‘beginners’ book, it’s worth a read by anyone in the email space. A refresher at the least, this book helps regain focus on the basics and what makes email effective. The book divides into three main sections; Content Strategies, List Strategies, Optimization Strategies with an ending full of CAN-SPAM and regulatory email legislation. I realize there are more pillars in the house that is ‘email’, however being a client-side based book, it’s spot on.

A few main points in the book got my attention. I’ll highlight one in each of the sections to give you a flavor of the innards of this great read. In the first section I came across the ‘Three R’s of Email Marketing: Relevance, Relevance, Relevance.’ This is a simple thought that so many marketers miss in email. It’s too easy to get caught up in the daily list of things to do and just push content into HTML and hit the send button, but relevance relates back to the ‘who cares’ factor of marketing 101. Don’t send emails just to send emails – please, please, please do your research and provide your recipients with relevant actionable data. Otherwise you’ll suffer the consequences of bad results, consistently. The first section of this book tells you about the how’s and why’s of setting up your email campaigns to be recognized and relevant.

The second point I ran across that made a great impression on me was ‘Educate the Entire Company about Email Policies and Procedures’. I know – this sounds stupid and hard to do, but the ramifications of being the only or one of the only people in your company that knows email creates a daily uphill battle against the entire entity you work with. This portion of the book doesn’t embellish the in’s-and-out’s of training and email education, but it raises a valid point. If you don’t solidify the policies and procedures of email marketing within the company, the hard work put in to make the email marketing successful will be a moot effort.

Lastly, the final nugget of knowledge I pulled from the book’s third portion was ‘ Measuring Success One Number at a Time’. All too often revenue drives the email marketing channel into a reactionary ‘batch and blast’ vehicle. This is a bad place to be in as an email marketer, not only do you have to keep the expectation of revenue up with your superiors, but it’s not the correct focus for email. Revenue isn’t the secret number that measures the success of a campaign. It is the reason we all get paid, however; there are too many other tertiary metrics that also need attention. This section reminded me that it’s crucial to pay attention to all facets of the deployment and measurement regarding numbers. If at all possible, take the time to review campaigns for successes in all areas not just the financial, it will help optimization for that ‘super campaign’ we all dream of when we hit that send button.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the authors or the publishers of this book. Nor did I receive compensation for this review. I’m just an email-geek trying to share some email knowledge, it’s a great book to add to the collection.