Advanced E-Mail Marketing:
Getting The Most From Your Copy And Your List Copy

At this year's "Direct Marketing Days in New York," Regina Brady from Acxiom Direct shared some new findings her interactive team had learned from its latest e-mail campaigns. The most compelling one showed how an Internet marketer was able to determine which message would pull the best response rate within a matter of hours.

"We tested seven different creatives," Brady told the audience, "by sending each message to test cells of two thousand names. The mailings went out in the morning and by noon we took the letters with the best response and analyzed them. We pulled out what we thought were the best elements in the first two and created a third letter. Then we test the two best ones against the new creative and within a few hours we saw that the new creative piece was the winner."

The mailing piece solicited recipients to sign up for a daily horoscope by e-mail. Brady reported a response rate of 43%.

The most dramatic results to be reported to MWT come from Mirage Resorts, Inc. (www.mirage.com) that has amassed a list of about 30,000 names from visitors who signed the guestbook on its site. Mirage, in keeping with its low profile policy, does little to solicit a name. The guestbook is not featured heavily and a surfer needs to scroll down to find it. Using Revnet's Unity Mail service, Mirage sent out a promotion to 7,000 names on its list inviting them to check out special Spring room rates available only to visitors to its web site at www.mirage.com.

"One week after that promotion," Pisoot Senethavily, the webmaster at Mirage, said, "forty-eight percent of the recipients of that e-mail clicked on the embedded link in that message. We booked 2,000 room nights we can attribute to that mailing. Another mailing lured 2,300 recipients to sign up for a contest with a wedding package prize and a promotion for Treasure Island brought in 1200 bookings.

Virtual Vineyards (www.virtualvinyards.com) also stays in contact with its customers with a twice monthly newsletter. By working with Digital Impact in San Mateo, CA, Virtual Vineyards has been able to profile customers.

"It surprised us to find out," Cyndy Ainsworth, Director of Product Marketing, said, "that our customers were much more interested in higher priced wines. That goes contrary to what other online retailers were noticing about their customers. Now we have a better idea how to forumlate our product acquisition plans. By sending relevant e-mails only to existing customers and getting smarter about what we send out," Ainsworth, added, "the company is realizing a formula for strong brand loyalty and customer retention."

William Park, president of Digital Impact sees companies increasing their email marketing efforts, "Because it clearly works. Our clients are not only building brand loyalty with their email marketing, but are also experiencing triple-digit ROI's and high click-through rates."