3. Market your program (and yourself) like a CMO.
Email is often seen as the mailroom of the marketing department. Does your sales or research team know the value of your subscribers? Does your creative team know that email design isn't about flash, bells, and whistles? Tell them what works, what doesn't, and why your email program really matters in the company. Use your industry knowledge to better your program and your standing in the company.
4. Be loud and clear.
Our industry is unique in that the path to being a subject matter expert isn't as steep as other industries (for better or worse). Of course, for that status to last beyond your 20th follower on Twitter, you need to be able to back it up. Many email marketers are true industry experts, whether they know it or not. Take advantage of the incredible tools and opportunities that let you develop your personal brand and promote various agendas you may have. But don't let it just exist externally. Make sure your boss, her boss, and senior managers know they have some star power on their team.
5. Don't be shy.
Initiate your own stimulus program. A good email marketing program can rarely be created or sustained with little resources and money. Build your business case (this would require acting like a CEO, CFO, and CMO), and you may be surprised with what you can get -- assuming you can demonstrate why, what, where, and how. There is great talent and technology in our space; do your best to gain access to it.
6. Give and take.
Give exclusive content, offers, and reason to become and stay a subscriber. Be sure to take subscribers' feedback and hints (what they click and don't click), and honor their commitment to you. After all, we know it can end with a simple click on the unsubscribe button.
7. Remember to be thankful.
Sometimes the best thing you can do is say "thanks" to your customers. Ken Bernhardt, a widely respected marketing expert and Regents' professor of marketing at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, offers this piece of advice to digital marketers: "During down times, it becomes increasingly important to communicate with your customers, telling them how much you appreciate their business. Emails are a quick, cost-effective, efficient way to accomplish this."
8. Be social, but not a drunken sailor.
Sharing and viral efforts are email's best wingman in the battle to leverage social network power. By all means, use email to drive traffic to Facebook fan pages and Twitter offerings. But don't do it at the expense of your core email value propositions, especially if the chatter there is not in line with your brand and consistent with overall messaging.
9. Plan and test like your next campaign is your last.
In this economy, do everything you can to make sure it isn't. Ensure your CFO and CMO like the data that support every move. Arm yourself with data-driven answers to post-campaign questions like, "Why did we use that subject line?"
10. Be greedy.
Don't let "no" or "we don't do that here" stand in the way. This is too often the reason for poor or undervalued email programs.
These are heady times. But with some assertiveness, combined with strategic direction, supporting data, and valuable messaging, email marketing can rise to a newfound level of importance for a wide range of businesses and recipients.
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G. Simms Jenkins is founder and CEO of BrightWave Marketing.
