A number of new trends in email marketing have surfaced this year. Keys factors for improving your results when using this phenomenal communication tool are listed below:

1. Relevance is King. The number one email trend is relevance-sending unique messages based on individual attributes at an appropriate frequency. "We are seeing the final and well-deserved demise of batch-and-blast emailing, and to some extent the move away from large-batch segmentation," says Chris Baggott, chief marketing officer of ExactTarget. "Marketers are beginning to appreciate the unique value of email in building person-to-person relationships. While this has been a stated goal for years, execution historically has followed the mass marketing approach."

2. Frequency Becomes Individually Driven. As emails become more relevant, the question of how frequently to email subscribers goes away. "People shouldn't be batch-blasted on a monthly or weekly schedule; that is a relic of print marketing campaigns," says Baggott. "Relationships are not 'campaigns,' they are communications between people." Email enables customers' requests and actual behaviors to dictate how often marketers reach out to them. There will be occasions when it is appropriate to talk to subscribers three times a month and then not again for three months.

3. Software User Interface is Critical. As marketers desire to do more with their email, the ease of use of their tools becomes very important. "If marketers have to reach out to technology resources every time they want to change a content rule or test a concept, they won't do it, and therefore will fail to market to their full potential," says Baggott. "Batch & Blast has been the default because marketers haven't had easy tools to do sophisticated email marketing."

4. Data Integration Fuels Relationship Marketing. Database Marketing drives relevance, and data integration drives database marketing. Email marketers are moving towards unfettered access to marketing data with stronger and more invisible integration between their email systems and their other marketing technology solutions, such as point of sale and marketing resource management. We're already seeing this with email integration to web analytics and CRM. "Accessing data hasn't historically been a problem for marketers, it's been executing on the data," says Baggott. "Email is uniquely positioned to take data and execute to the level of relationship marketing that most marketers have only dreamed of."

5. Automated Email. Well, not quite, but automated or event-driven email is getting a lot of attention. Marketers can utilize customer data with automated email triggers to deliver relevant one-to-one communications with subscribers. For example, if an item goes on sale that is right for a subscriber, an email automatically is sent to that particular subscriber. "There's no reason to waste a 'touch' on an entire database when only a few subscribers are interested in receiving a particular message," says Baggott. "Automating email allows marketers to easily communicate with subscribers in a targeted and intelligent way."

6. Marketing Democracy. Email is becoming the great marketing equalizer. Gone are the days that good marketing requires big budgets. The company that drives the better customer relationship will have the advantage. "With the cost of data going down and email continuing to be affordable, smaller businesses now have the tools to compete with their larger counterparts when it comes to relationship marketing," says Baggott.

7. Rise of the "From" Address. The "From" Address is becoming the most important factor in determining the initial success of an email program. In terms of relevancy and growing relationships, the "From" Address must reflect a person, not an institution. "The fastest way to build a relationship between your prospects/customers and your company is to engage with them one-on-one," says Baggott. "Email is the perfect tool to do this. We definitely will see more email coming from salespeople, customer service reps, store managers or franchise owners than ever before, even though much will be automated with 'relationship owner' entered as another data field."

8. Better Control & Compliance. Email is probably the least controlled medium in most organizations, but that will change as organizations are faced with three significant drivers that are forcing consistent control and compliance.

• Organizations are striving for one central view of the customer to cut down on the number of emails sent to customers from various departments throughout the organization through batching.
• Companies are recognizing they are legally liable for content in emails sent by their employees. Policies aren't enough; integrated content management systems will become a critical component to any system.
• Compliance also affects deliverability. It is becoming mission critical that systems are in place to monitor compliance with lists, bounces, filters and everything else associated with managing blacklists complying with the rules of various ISP white lists. No organization can afford to appear on a blacklist that might affect the entire enterprise because of the irresponsible action of perhaps one person or department.

9. In-house email will convert to Email Service Provider. Most organizations don't have the resources in house to manage the constantly changing complexities of email marketing software. These marketers will outsource their email to professional email service providers that can deliver an on-demand, easy-to-use email solution that allows you to communicate to customers individually with relevant, trackable emails while staying compliant with current regulations.

ExactTarget delivers on-demand email software solutions for permission-based email marketing. The Home Depot, General Mills, Scotts, Churchill Downs, Encyclopedia Britannica, and more than 2,900 organizations worldwide rely on ExactTarget email solutions to strengthen their customer relationships and to control email throughout the enterprise. ExactTarget offers solutions that meet the needs of all industry verticals and all size organizations. To learn more, go to http://www.exacttarget.com or contact Christopher Barnes at 310-686-2314 or via email at: cbarnes@exacttarget.com

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