A No-Nonsense, Take-No-Prisoners Plan for Earning Positive Return on Your Email Marketing! “They” say email is dead. Baloney! 94% of Americans use email. Passionate social networkers use email more, not less. Mobile email is huge. Email offers marketers more opportunities than ever...opportunities to guide customers from consideration and trial to repeat purchase, loyalty, even advocacy! But email has changed. Email users have changed. To get breakthrough results, you must break the rules! Whether you’re B2B or B2C, Fortune 500 or startup, this is a complete no-nonsense plan for transforming your email marketing. Discover radically better ways to handle every facet of your campaign: lists, From names, Subject lines, calls to action, social network integration...everything! Learn how to Discover which email marketing “rules” are obsolete--and when to break the rest Optimize every component of your message and campaign Drive list growth that translates directly into the top line Encourage opt-in by systematically simplifying signup Bring real humor and creativity back into your email Write a great main call to action--and great secondary and tertiary calls, too Take full advantage of tools ranging from QR codes to texting to grow your email list Make better technical decisions about prechecked opt-in boxes and other attributes Know when to deliberately introduce “imperfections” into your emails Use email marketing and social media to power each other Prepare for the short- and long-term futures of email marketing

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Email Marketing Is (Not) Dead     1 Email Is Dead?      3 94%     3 2.9 Billion     5 Email versus Email Marketing     7 The ROI of Email Marketing     8 What to Expect from This Book     9 Endnotes     11 Part I: THE SECRET TO EMAIL MARKETING: LIST GROWTH Chapter 1: Why List Growth Matters     13 List Churn and List Fatigue     14 30%     15 A Few Words about Effective Tactics     17 Endnotes     19 Chapter 2: How to Grow Your List     21 Making the Opt-In Process Obvious and Easy     23 Asking Website Visitors to Subscribe     26 Using Humor and Creativity to Increase Opt-Ins     29 Using Technology: QR Codes and Smartphone Apps to Grow Your List     31 Use Social Media     34 Providing Incentive (WIIFM--What’s In It For Me?)      37 Growing Your Email List Offline     40 Endnotes     43 Chapter 3: Let’s Get Technical     45 To Pre-check or Not to Pre-check     46 Explain the Email List Sign-Up Process     48 Send a Welcome Email     50 Remember, Make a Good First Impression     54 Endnotes     55 Part II: THE ANATOMY OF AN EMAIL Chapter 4: Examining an Email’s Body Parts     57 The Subject Line and From Address     58 The Preheader     59 The Header     60 Table of Contents     60 Main Call to Action     61 Secondary Calls to Action     62 Sharing Your Email     63 The Footer     64 Chapter 5: The First Impression     67 From Name and Subject Line     68 Preheader     72 Header     75 You Don’t Need a Second Chance Do You?      78 Endnote     79 Chapter 6: The Meat and Potatoes     81 Table of Contents     82 Zappos’s Digest TOC Email     82 MarketingProfs’s Approach to Email Table of Contents     83 Main Calls to Action     86 Secondary and Tertiary Calls to Action     90 Buttons vs. Links vs. Images     91 Endnote     96 Chapter 7: The Finishing Touches     97 Social Sharing and Social Connecting     98 Footer     100 Providing Unsubscribe Options     102 Endnote     106 Part III: BREAKING THE RULES Chapter 8: Are Best Practices Really “Best”?      107 Best Practices Are Practices That Are Best for You     108 Test and Test Often     109 What to Expect     110 Endnotes     111 Chapter 9: My Word! You Must Read This Now!      113 Email Subject Line Words to Avoid     114 King Arthur Flour: Achieving Higher Sales Using All Caps and FREE     118 Tumbleweed: More Opens and Click-Throughs Using All Caps and Free     121 The Proper Length of a Subject Line     123 Measuring Success     125 Evidence in Favor of Long Subject Lines     126 The Most Incredible Chapter Ever     129 Endnotes     130 Chapter 10: The Perfect-Looking Email     133 It’s Okay to Send Mostly Text Emails     134 Some Subscribers Prefer Simple Text Emails     137 Writing Letters Versus Pamphlets     139 Text Emails Have a Clean Look     140 Text Works for B2C Marketers, Too!      141 One Big Image Can Work     143 King Arthur Flour’s Image-Heavy Emails     146 Making Mostly Image Emails More Readable     147 What If the Unsubscribe Link Is at the Top of the Email?      152 The Most Headache-inducing, Eye-searing Graphic Possible     157 Groupon’s Creative Unsubscribe Solution     158 Test the Rules; Don’t Just Break Them Outright     159 Beauty Is in the Eye of the Subscriber     160 Ugly Emails That Consistently Perform Well     160 A Split Test of Ugly Versus Pretty     164 Making Assumptions and Challenging Them     167 Endnotes     168 Chapter 11: The Best Ways to Grow Your List     171 Spiders, Scorpions, Snakes...and Popups     172 Installing a Lightbox to Increase Opt-Ins     174 Using Lightboxes on Blogs     175 Adding Lightboxes on a B2C Site     177 Park City Mountain Resort Tests a Popup on Its Winter 2010 Website     179 Choosing an Opt-In: Single or Double     180 Making the Case for Double Opt-In     182 Making the Case for Single Opt-In     183 Village Voice Media Moves from Double to Single Opt-In: Sees Significant List Growth     185 Sending Emails Without Permission     186 Sending an “Opt-Out” Email     189 Using an eAppend     191 Buying an Email List     193 Coming Full Circle     198 Endnotes     199 Part IV: BATMAN (EMAIL MARKETING) AND ROBIN (SOCIAL MEDIA) Chapter 12: How Email and Social Media Go Together     203 Batman and Robin     204 Email: The Digital Glue of Social Media     205 Social Connecting vs. Social Sharing vs. Social Promoting     208 Social Connecting     208 Social Sharing     210 Social Promoting     212 Endnotes     213 Chapter 13: The Power of Pairs     215 Social Connecting     216 Using Email Marketing to Grow Your Social Following     216 Using Email Marketing to Grow Facebook Likes and Revenue     218 Social Sharing     222 Show Me the Money: How One Online Retailer Netted $250,000 Using SWYN     227 Social Promoting     229 Using Social Media to Grow Your Email List and Make Money     231 A Truly Integrated Email Marketing and Social Media Campaign     233 Two Is Better Than One     235 Endnotes     235 Part V: THE FUTURE OF EMAIL MARKETING Chapter 14: What’s Next?      237 The Current State of Email Marketing     238 Email Marketing Predictions     239 Chapter 15: Go Forth and Conquer     247 What You Know     248 What Now?      249 Four Steps to Email Marketing Success     250 1. Grow Your List     250 2. Plan Your Content     250 3. Determine Success Metrics     251 4. Send, Test, Analyze, Adjust, Repeat     251 And Now, It’s Your Turn     252 Endnotes     252 Appendix A: Your Prize     253 Index     255