posted by Mark

Marketing is all about results. One of the quickest ways to destroy the profitability of your campaigns, whether they are online or off-line, is to keep feeding a process that isn't making any money. Managers and business owners have to be ruthless in cutting off ads and promotions that aren't working – or even those that aren't working well enough to justify the costs.

Sometimes, though, the desire to be efficient can cause us to give up just a little bit too soon, especially when the conventional wisdom is that some tactic or idea is "dead." Since everyone knows it doesn't work, why keep putting time and money into it?

I think that's what's happened to e-mail marketing. Even though there are plenty of businesses still working profitable campaigns, many companies have given up on it for fear of the impression that they're spamming their customers. The reality, however, is that they are missing out on sales and profits that they could get with just a little bit of effort.

Here are four ways to make your e-mail campaigns work:

Start with the right list. To have a successful e-mail campaign, you need working addresses of people who want to hear from you. The best way to get those is from your existing customers or prospects. Have them opt in to receive some small promotional item or coupon – you’ll end up with a list that's both valid and interested in what you sell.

Keep things to the point. Don't send long e-mails with complicated ideas. If you can't communicate everything you need to a few hundred words or less, save part of it for the next message. It's better to have people interested in reading small bits at a time than it is to go straight into their trash folder.

Be consistent… not annoying. Few companies can get away with sending an e-mail newsletter every day, or even every week. It might take some trial and error, but try to find out how often your customers want to hear from you and then stick to that schedule.

Track and optimize. It's not enough to send out e-mails and hope for the best. Use state-of-the-art tracking software to find out which links, products, articles your customers are clicking on responding to. Then, you can use that information to optimize your future marketing messages and make them even more profitable.