The channel (Business to Business, Business to Consumer, or Both) and complexity of a sale determines the effectiveness of email marketing objectives.

The chart below shows that email marketing is most effective:

• in the Business to Consumer channel

...for these marketing objectives:

• increasing website traffic
• increasing sales revenue
• improving customer retention

Marketing Sherpa's survey of more than 1,100 marketers identified the effectiveness of email in achieving marketing and sales pipeline objectives such as building brand awareness, increasing website traffic, increasing lead generation, supporting off-line marketing programmes, increasing sales revenue, and improving customer retention.

I had a recent question from a client concerned about his email messages getting blocked by his recipients' spam filters.

We use Aweber as our email marketing platform.

Here is what Aweber provides to maximise the number of your emails that are read:

1. Highest email delivery rates
Aweber is recognised by ISPs worldwide as a professional and standards compliant bulk email manager. This, combined with the items below properly implemented, means your message won't get blocked at the ISP level.

2. Email Confirmation Requirement

When someone opts in to an email list by filling in a form on a website, Aweber's standard setting is to send an email requesting confirmation of the opt in request. This is fully compliant with email best practice, and does two things:

• checks the accuracy of the email address entered
• checks that the email address owner really has requested the opt-in

It does have the down-side of add yet another "hurdle" for the subscriber to jump over before receiving the information requested.

When an existing email list is imported to Aweber (instead of people opting in via a sign up form), the first thing Aweber does is to send an email to all imported addresses asking for confirmation that they agree to be included in the list - just as it would if they had opted in "normally".

Without this step, spammers could (and do) bombard recipients with unwanted emails, and you'd leave yourself wide open to spam complaints. (Even when people do opt-in, they forget, and may complain later.)

3. Unsubscribe Link Provided
Every message sent by Aweber includes an unsubscribe link - so the recipient can opt out whenever they want.

4. Spam Risk Assessment
Once your message is entered in Aweber, it runs a spam risk assessment. This warns you of anything in your message subject or content which could be likely to trigger spam filters. You can then edit your message to eliminate the triggers and replace them with alternative words.

5. Bounces Monitored
People change their email addresses, so if you have addresses no longer valid, or where an email box is "full" Aweber flogs this as a "bounce".
This allows you to "clean" your list - by either removing, or updating (if you can) the email record.

6. Complaints Monitored
Compliance with email standards requires that recipients can complain to the service provider if they believe abuse of their email address has occurred. Aweber tracks any complaints from your recipients.

7. Opens Monitored
Aweber tracks how many of your messages were opened by recipients - this is the key result - getting your email read.

8. Clicks Monitored
If you have clickable links in your message, Aweber will track how many people clicked the link
Aweber can also track online sales resulting from your email campaign.

9. Split Testing of Messages
Aweber allows you to split test your messages on lists of over 100 recipients.

The 1st thing to test is always the Subject - since this is a major factor determining the open rate for each message
(other factors affecting open rate are - who the message is from, and when they last received a message from you, and the time of arrival of the message)

This is very important.

Slip Test Example:

I recently sent a message to a small list of just over 400 subscribers.
I used a split test with 2 Subjects, just varying the first few words of the subject: (everything else identical in Subject and body of message)

Subject A: I'll send you a ....
Subject B: Look out for your ....

The open rate for Subject A was 140% higher than for subject B

Email is a brilliant marketing tool. Useful for product and service oriented businesses alike, email marketing is “green”, cost-effective, and easy to implement. In addition, email is the primary form of business communication (as opposed to social media). Email marketing is also very effective, netting almost £30 ROI per every pound spent.

However, it is also very easy to get wrong. The average consumer receives 110 marketing emails per week in his inbox (not counting spam or messages that end up in the spam folder). Of those emails, the average consumer will only open approximately 33 of them and will only actually “click-through” on up to three offers.

In order to make your email marketing stand out and up to the challenge, keep these seven simple tips in mind...