Step Up Your Game

Testing does not end with e-mail. It also should not occur in isolation or as a solo component of marketing apart from search engine marketing or print media. Your results should help shape other aspects of your marketing programs. Once you’ve tested and found a winning combination for your e-mails, you can test how that approach works on your Web site. If the results are good, you can start applying that approach to other aspects of your marketing program.

It may be impossible for you to get one perfect e-mail that is right for every audience. But by continuously testing and interpreting the results, you’ll be able to improve your e-mail and create messages that are nearly “perfect.” While it may seem like a good deal of work, the payoff in improved campaign performance is large—and your competitors probably won’t be taking these basic steps to fine-tune their own marketing campaigns.

Brett Charney is the director of strategic services at Merkle, a Lanham, Md.-based database marketing agency. Charney’s 10 years of online marketing expertise includes e-mail, search, Web site analytics and optimization, and online advertising. He can be reached at bcharney@merkleinc.com.