Email Marketing Grows Up

The carefree days of email marketing’s youth were spent blasting emails to as many people as possible. What a party that was - sort of a combination of pledge week and Spring Break. Email was and is cheap to send. And in the past, email campaigns just seemed to make money, no matter how poor the methodology, and that sure looked good compared to the other marketing channels.

But, just like those fresh off Spring Break kids who must suddenly contemplate life after college, email marketers in 2009 should be considering a more practical and, dare we say it, sound business approach if they want to continue receiving a paycheck. Let’s take a look at why - now, more than ever - you should segment your email list, protect against opt-outs and spam complaints, and which segmentation approach is the most practical.

My February byline in smallbiztechnology.com covers:

• Why should you segment? To avoid disaster
  
• Why should you be especially worried about opt-outs and spam complaints in 2009?
• Segmenting your list will reap rewards
• What segmentation approach is most practical?