Five Email Marketing Resolutions

Keep a clean list. Doesn't it feel great to sleep in clean sheets, eat in a clean kitchen or put on a clean shirt? We love when things are clean, but it takes work to get them that way. It's the same with your email list. It might take some work to get rid of old emails and hunt down the issues for those being blocked, but it's worth it. And once you've spent the time to do a deep cleaning, the upkeep is easy. Make it your goal to give a little bit of time to list cleaning each month so you can get that good feeling that comes from having a sparkling list made up of people who want to hear from you.

Test, test, test. Testing is the best way to determine what you can do to get optimal results from your audience. By testing, you can learn what day and time of day to send, what subject lines get the most opens, and what topics, promotions, offers, and calls-to-action get the best responses. Your open and click-through rates will give you the answers. By testing and using your findings you'll be better equipped to create highly effective emails. Make sure to take good notes.

Segment your list. Dividing your list into categories based on interests, shopping habits, geographical locations or any other criteria you choose is an excellent goal for this year. Targeted marketing can make a huge difference in the responses you get from your emails. If you can communicate with your contacts about something that you know is of interest to them, you have a much better chance of getting them to open the email, read it and act on it. The more targeted the message, the better the response.

I hope that one -- or all, if you are ambitious -- of these resolutions works for you. Tap into the potential of email marketing and let this be the year that you reap the best results ever. Happy email marketing!