E-mail Marketing Done Right
by A. Michael Baker - Printed in Specialty Automotive Magazine

The cheapest and most efficient way to reach your customers is with e-mail. Sure, you could print and mail thousands of flyers; but add up the costs. Printing, postage, addressing, it could add up to 20 cents or more for every piece. You can lay out the same flyer in an e-mail and it could cost you exactly ZERO for every one you mail. Additionally, e-mail marketing can work for both your store and your web store. Here are some tips for making it work.

Use Database Marketing Techniques
When you gather customer information put it into a database so that you can easily search and retrieve information. I'm particularly fond of Lotus Approach; but you can use Microsoft Access, any stand alone database application, or even Microsoft Excel. When you get your customer's info ask them for the year, make, and model of all their vehicles in addition to the standard name, address, phone, and e-mail. Now you can personalize every e-mail or flyer that you send out.
I've created a simple retail template in Excel that you can download at the SAM web site or from my own web site. Just follow the links at the end of this article to the file called Retail_Customer_Data.xlt. I'll cover how to use this database info in the section "Personalization" below.

Avoid Spam Filters
Using words like "Free!" or "Discount!" in the subject line can set off alarms in spam filters. Write a subject line that simply explains what the e-mail is about. For example: "At Performance Supply you can get great service and save up to 50% thru Saturday." Exercise discretion and avoid overdone marketing hyperbole. Keep a record of what subject lines you use and track the response. You may find that a standard subject line with small variations keeps your response rate high.

Send Well Designed HTML E-Mails
Plain text e-mails can carry a lot of information and even be effective in certain cases. But, the graphic presentation of a well designed HTML e-mail gives you the same effect of a printed ad or flyer and can dramatically increase your response.
If you can layout a web page, you can send a graphical, HTML coded e-mail. Use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editor such as Dreamweaver, Pagemill, or Front Page. Dreamweaver is probably the best all around program. If you use Front Page be wary of including special code that can only be displayed properly in Internet Explorer. If you can't build a web page then hire a pro. The same person who built your web site can build these e-mails.
I like to think of the e-mail as the front page of a newspaper with headlines, photos, and little articles on the items I'm selling. This "editorial" style of layout is familiar and comfortable to readers. Instead of looking like "just another spam ad that I don't need," it can encourage your customers to actually read the whole thing. Don't get too fancy, don't use flash or gif animations, and don't forget to include links to specific information on your web site. For examples look at the marketing e-mails sent out by Amazon or Tower Records.
One of the things that really bugs me is knowingly leaving out potential customers. Some people don't care about anything except the 70% of people who use Internet Explorer. Some designers layout web pages for 17" monitors without regard for all the consumers with 14" screens. Before you send your e-mail test it on all the platforms. Your e-mail should display properly in Microsoft Outlook, Netscape Communicator, Eudora, and AOL. ALWAYS include a text version! Some people set their e-mail programs to display only text and not the HTML message. Virtually all volume e-mail programs allow you to include both versions. Then the graphical HTML version will display when it can and the text only version will display when the HTML can't. Follow these simple guidelines and you can be sure that 99.9% of your customers will be able to see your e-mail marketing message.
My final bit of technical design advice is to follow a simple layout guide. Make your HTML e-mail no wider than 600 pixels with the most important information on the left. The e-mail may be any length, but your important information should be in the first 300 pixels. If you are using a WYSIWYG HTML editor, such as Dreamweaver, you can create a "table" to precisely control your sizes and layout placements. Following these size and placement guides assures that your most important marketing messages are displayed on screen when the e-mail is first opened.

Don't Send Attachments
Attachments slow every thing down and clog up your bandwidth. The photos in your e-mail are actually stored in your web site. The HTML code in the e-mail simply tells where to find them and how to display them. It's literally no different than a web page.
If you want to make a file, such as a screensaver, available to your customers, use a link in your e-mail. That will take them to your web site to download it and give them the opportunity to shop.

Personalization
You could make up one e-mail and send to everybody on your list; and there are some instances where this would be appropriate. However, if you really want maximized response you need to personalize your e-mails with information targeted to directly to each specific customer. As an example let's say you want to put valve covers on sale. Download the photos or take out your digital camera (go get a good one, they're really cheap today) and shoot pics of late model center bolt Chevy, early Chevy, various Ford, Honda, and Acura covers. Now each vehicle owner will get the photo, marketing copy, and price of valve covers for his or her own vehicle. Don't put Honda rear wings in the e-mails to truck owners and don't put rear roll pans in the e-mails to Honda Civic owners. Everyone wants to know what you have for their car or truck and your e-mail will generate far more interest when it is tailored to specific makes and vehicles. Your database will make this simple.
If you sell race tires you can include tires specifically for the type of racing the customer does. Put in race shocks for racers and street shocks for street vehicles, lowering kits for street trucks and prerunner suspensions for off road trucks. With some product lines you can use a group photo, generic copy, and specific pricing. Let's say you are putting air filters on sale. Use a group photo of a bunch of filters and general copy on the benefits of these filters. Then use your database to plug in the sale price of an air filter for the customer's own particular car.
Address each e-mail specifically to each customer. When you separate the first and last name in your database layout (see my Excel template) you will have the freedom to address your mail in any format you wish. You can send the mail to Mike, Mr. Baker, or Mr. Mike Baker. The salutation field allows you to add Mr., Mrs., or Ms. to the name and have it be correct. Putting the customer's name in the e-mail lets them know that you built this e-mail just for him or her.
There is no limit to the amount of personalization and demographic targeting you can do with database driven e-mails. With the right programs and careful preparation your targeting can become very automatic and require very little time when you setup to send e-mails. Start with the simple stuff and gradually get more sophisticated as you learn to operate the programs.
Another trick I like to use is birthday e-mails. Ask the customer for their birth date and send them an e-mail on the last day of the month before their birthday. I was born on October 9th so I would receive an e-mail on September 30. The best thing to offer is a free gift. It doesn't have to be much; a key chain, a coffee mug, a pair of cheap mechanics gloves, almost anything. Send me that e-mail on the last day of September and tell me: "Happy Birthday! Come into the store anytime during the month of October and pick up our special birthday present to you, a FREE pair of mechanics gloves. And, in honor of your birthday, when you buy anything during the month of October we will take 10% off our normal selling price! We appreciate your business and hope you have a wonderful birthday." That sound you hear is a giant Hoover sucking customers into your store!

Follow The Rules
Many states as well as the Federal government are promulgating laws to regulate marketing e-mails. You can avoid problems (and increase customer satisfaction) if you ask your customers for permission before you put them on the list. Add some copy to the bottom of each e-mail to remind them that they gave permission and then provide a link or e-mail address where they can unsubscribe to your e-mail list. Be sure to state your privacy policy explicitly. Customers will be more inclined to join your list if you don't share e-mail addresses with anyone outside your company.

E-mail Programs
I use Postcast for personalized database driven e-mails and Mojo Mail for generic bulk e-mails. Postcast (http://www.postcast.com) is a very powerful, inexpensive e-mail program that installs on your Windows computer and sends e-mails over your in-house Internet connection. With a broadband connection (DSL or cable) Postcast can send thousands of e-mails in minutes. Mojo Mail (http://mojo.skazat.com/) is a CGI script that installs on your web site and sends bulk e-mails from your web server. Mojo is very easy to use and also automates sign up and unsubscribing for your customers on the web site.

Get Help
I know you can do it. This stuff is not rocket science and some of the smartest people I ever met in this industry were retailers. There is a learning curve involved and it does take time to do this. If you're short on time or don't want to learn how to do it, hire some one. An HTML e-mail is just like a single web page and any web design firm can do it without charging you more than $50 to $100 dollars when you supply the copy and photos. There are lots of firms out there who can handle your complete program including mailing and database management for a lot less than printing and mailing dead trees would cost. All you would have to do is keep gathering the information from your customers. A good strategy is to hire a firm to handle it and then when you learn how to do it bring it in house and do it yourself.

Also Try Not Selling
Every week Amazon sends me an e-mail, "Your Weekly Movie Showtimes from Amazon." Sounds crazy doesn't it. Then maybe it's crazy like a fox. It puts Amazon's name in front of me every week with something I want to look at while delivering a marketing message. Why couldn't you send out e-mails with a schedule of races at the racetracks within driving distance every week? You can easily go online and gather up the motorsports schedule for the local TV channels and send that out.
You have the opportunity send your customers a regular e-mail that they will want and read. Of course, every one carries your marketing message: "We now carry Ohlins shocks. This week only, 15% off all K&N air filters in stock." The potential is incredible.

E-mail For All
The same concepts work for manufacturers and distributors. Instead of waiting months to find out that XYZ Corp. has a new application, you could find out instantly. It always amazes me how most manufacturers ignore the simplest, most effective, and least expensive marketing communications tools.

If you have questions or comments on e-mail marketing, please post them on the Marketing Community Forum at my web site. I'll be happy to help and we can share the information with everybody.

Click here for the automotive consumer database template to use in Excel.