When you get to a point in your business that you start collecting email address making different lists might be a smart idea from the beginning instead of down the road when your list is so large you have a hard time even looking at it. Dividing up your email marketing list in different characteristics will allow you to really target your email marketing campaigns down the road.

There are many ways you can divide up the list.

Inquiries: Anyone that has ever inquired about your services and products in one list can allow you to send special first sign up or product purchase offers to get that person to make a purchase or start up another purchasing conversation.

Products: You could separate your list into purchasing habits and which products people buy. This will allow you to market specific products depending on purchasing habits of your current customers.

Geographically: Depending on what type of products you sell and where if you notice that a certain number of people are buying a specific product in a geographical area you can then market products related to that area that might likely use or enjoy.

These are just a few examples of what you can do with your list in order to maximize your email marketing efforts. If you are a business that collects emails frequently this will be very important to do early in the game.

When it comes to email marketing it is difficult to tell someone or a company exactly what the frequency of email distribution should be. Each business and audience will react differently. It is really up to you to figure out what that perfect frequency is.

The only way to really figure this out is to do as many tests as possible for a certain amount of time. keeping track of all statistics on opens and unsubscribes will be important. You will have to keep track of what time your email goes and and then analyze the data. Your best bet is to put all the info in a spreadsheet and do this for either three or six months to be able to make an accurate decision. After you have decided on a time frame to analyze this information make some small changes to your distribution schedule and then analyze the numbers to see what type of significant changes that occurred from the changes that you had made. This type of testing is very important so that your business is not missing out on any opportunities. Before you do this you will need to figure out if you want to send one or two emails out per day. Once you have made this decision then you can start to perform these tests. You could also as part of your test include increasing from one to two emails per week or the other way around.

Email marketing comes in many different shapes and colors and as a business you should really test as much as possible so you know what works and what doesn’t. By using an email survey periodically you can isolate information you are trying to look for.

Email surveys can allow you to find out information regarding your audience that normally would be difficult to dig up. There is a great deal of information you can find out to help clean up your marketing efforts. Just asking your email recipients will not get them to act. You have to offer something in order to get them to stop what they are doing and respond to your survey request. usually a free give away of some sort like a t-shirt, and iPod or Laptop will work, depending on your budget of course. When an email recipient or customer gives you detailed information on how large their family might be or any personal interests they will expect something in return. People in general will not divulge personal information if the chance of something coming there way doesn’t exist.

Here are some items of information that a survey can reveal:

Industry:This could be a very powerful piece of information. If your product spans across many verticals but you find out one is very top heavy that leaves room to either further target that industry or pick up slack in others.

Company Size: With this information you can target products in email campaigns that could isolate specific attributes of specific company sizes

Specific Marketing Efforts? If you can understand what type of marketing efforts your email recipients are currently executing you can target products and services according to those needs.

Now more than ever you have to be visible in from of your customers. With the holidays behind us sending out a series of emails promoting and after holiday sales would be a smart choice. Email campaigns will be vital to any companies success right now.

Consumer confidence is at an all time low and it will take the effort of every business across the board in order to bring this confidence back to a healthy level. Keeping in front of your email list weekly will be important to keep sales moving along and keep everything a float. This is no time to pull back on your email marketing campaigns. This is the time to march forward and hit that campaign harder. Customers are not really thinking about buying things they don’t need right now until they are reminded about that specific item or service. You must remind your email list weekly on all products and services offered by your business. Now is a good time to run after holiday sales and promotions on a weekly basis in order to keep inventory moving.

Hiding from customers or pulling back on spending is not a recommended choice of action. Email marketing is relatively inexpensive compared to many other online efforts and should be the last path to go.

Well this is it. One week left to get as much promotion out as possible. many online retailers are not guaranteeing deliveries before Christmas anymore but you can still push it hard with your email marketing.

Now is the time to pull out your secret weapons and really offer some great deals and promotions. I have seen retailers dropping 40% off everything coupon codes this last week in email campaigns to pull in some last minute shoppers. You really only get one time of year to justify a promotion that steep and it is in the month of December. With recent economic events its is better to move product at a fraction of profit than no profit at all. Right now who ever drops the larger discount in from of email recipients will be victorious in the race to the checkout button. The holiday season combined with the economy and people are not willing to pay full price for anything anymore. Email marketing is the quickest way to let everyone around you know just how much you are will as a company to reduce your prices. If you haven’t used your email list you to reach out to your clients than you need to climb out from under the rock you’ve been sleeping under and put together some promotions so that your client base still realizes you are a business.