According to Forrester Research, spending on email marketing, delivery, analytics, integration and creative will approach $2.5 billion annually by 2016, up from $1.5 billion in 2011, a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent. However, email marketing is extremely inexpensive.  Compared with search marketing’s estimated expenditures of $33 billion by 2016, email’s cost per impression (CPM) is very low. Since email is becoming more valuable in the B2B market, I encourage you to take a second look at your email marketing strategy and examine what your database of email addresses is worth.
 
1 - Introduction

Opt-In Tip: Double-opt in organic email lists comprise the most targeted, qualitative databases. For instance, if you are obtaining email addresses through trade shows, don’t just start sending your company-branded email campaigns to the lists you’ve gathered from the show listing. Introduce yourself. Ask permission to send emails, and give your audience a clear understanding of the content and frequency of your campaign.
Opt-In Cleanse: Segment email addresses in your database by import date or filter setting. Send a targeted email that asks those subscribers a specific question regarding the event where they signed up to join your list. For example, send subscribers who attended a recent trade show a success story about how your company revised its strategy after listening to a keynote speaker at that particular event. Then, invite the subscriber to share post-show experiences as well – perhaps via social media, if applicable.

2 - Communication

Content Tip: According to BtoB’s 2012 Email Marketing report, fifty-seven percent of marketers are concerned that their email program won’t have enough content “fuel” to make it worthwhile. My suggestion is to not keep your email content in a bubble away from your other business objectives. Recycle established collateral, white papers, success stories, trade show presentations, PR and editorial content to create valuable, targeted content for your audience. Also, remind subscribers in every email how they signed up for your emails. They will value your content more if it is reinforced that they requested to receive it.
Content Cleanse: Ask your subscribers via survey to share their desired content focus and frequency. It’s also helpful to find out what content subscribers do NOT want to receive. You can redirect the subscriber to a simple online survey tool. Or, you can develop a survey in the HTML-based email itself. Use a link (that can be tracked and measured with analytics) for various segmentation options.

3 - Maintenance

Unsubscribe Tip: Don’t hide the unsubscribe link in your emails. It should be easier to unsubscribe than to “report as spam” or even delete! If your readers aren’t finding value in your content, it’s better to purge them from your list than to keep sending them information they don’t want to receive.
Unsubscribe Cleanse: Send a series of final emails, via drip campaign, to subscribers who have not been engaged with your email (open/click ratings) for the past three to five distributions. Remove recurring soft bounces. Verify that your domain, media and bounce domain emails are authenticated via Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or Sender ID Framework (SIDF).

If you have any questions or need help cleaning, don’t hesitate to post a comment below!