No, says e-marketer Loren McDonald. Here’s an abridged list of what Loren says the successful email marketer really needs to know [with my comments from the peanut gallery]:
1. Email strategy — know how to create an email marketing plan and program that maximize the channel’s capabilities. [Always happy to see strategy at the top of a list like this.]
2. List-building/acquisition — [Nonprofits have a head start here ... they have donor files ... the challenge is getting donors' email addresses.]
3. Email design — marketers don’t need to be email design experts, but your designer/programmers or agencies must master email HTML coding, rendering issues, mobile design challenges and content-based spam filters. [Get help on this one.]
4. Deliverability — lots of technical issues here. [Get more help!]
5. Copywriting — email is not electronic direct mail. Writers must understand the ins and outs of subject lines, content and human filters, the impact of preview panes and blocked images and the need for scannable copy. [But basic direct response principles still hold water!]
6. Database marketing — at the heart of email success. Marketers must understand how to use customer data to create relevant segments and use personalization to drive relevance and conversion. Database marketing is probably the key area on which to focus your knowledge-building efforts. [This I heartily agree with!]
7. Legal issues — again, lots of nitty gritty stuff to know … CAN-SPAM Act etc. [Ignorance here is not bliss.]
8. Email trends and best practices — consumer email use is evolving with social media, networks, communities and blogs. Today’s inbox is different from 2008 and will change again in 2010. [Amen!]
And you thought just about anybody could whip off an effective email campaign!
Tom
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Tom – You could argue that there are counterparts for direct mail to all those great points that Loren has made. Although you are creating for a different medium for a different audience, would you say direct mail is not direct mail if the core audience suddenly changed, letter formats were different, and you had to deal with someone else delivering your mail besides the post office? Maybe. Maybe not.
Now, I am playing a little devil’s advocate here but you get the gist. They are both one-to-many (outbound) fundraising vehicles. They both require proper segmentation and frequency to be effective. We are seeing though that each require a specific toolset and strategy to deliver.