I just read the Silverpop whitepaper* added recently to our email marketing library, on “6 Fixes to Dramatically Boost Email Marketing Results.” Each of the six fixes has numerous parts to it, and I was struck by how many of these are email best practices, best practices we’ve blogged on and written about in our email marketing newsletter.

Silverpop’s email marketing whitepaper is divided into six common email marketing mistakes:

1.    No preference center
2.    Not managing expectations
3.    Mailing too frequently – or too infrequently
4.    Ignoring subscriber feedback
5.    Relying on process metrics to measure and communicate email performance
6.    Getting the timing wrong

These are all broad topics, but as I mentioned above, each has plenty of specific advice and email best practices described to help you overcome the common mistake.

Once again it reminds me that our world, the world of email marketing, is made up of possibly countless moving parts. Maybe it’s more of a galaxy than a world! But that’s why it’s so important to keep reading blogs, newsletters and whitepapers, and to attend webinars and email marketing conferences. And then tweak and tweak and tweak, constantly improving your email marketing campaigns so you can constantly improve your email marketing results.

*For this whitepaper click here and look for the Silverpop whitepaper title “Discoveries and Opportunities: Fixes to Dramatically Boost Email Marketing Results.”

When you’re on the hunt for some email marketing knowledge or email best practices, start with our library. We’ll save you time with Google and other search engines by weeding out the bad and only offering the good.

We draw from a variety of sources. We’re involved in the Email Experience Council (EEC) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and we partner with top tier email service providers (ESPs) like Silverpop, ExactTarget and BlueHornet, and we use all of these resources to help us track down the best email marketing whitepapers and case studies.

Email marketing and direct marketing topics covered include:

• Email delivery
• Whitelisting
• Web 2.0 email marketing
• Spam
• Email subject lines
• Email design
• Pay-per-click campaigns
• And much, much more!

Check out the library and download some email marketing knowhow and email best practices by clicking here.

Chances are, with all the moving parts that make up email marketing, there are some moving parts of your own email marketing campaign that can use some refinement. Rather than look outside of your existing email marketing program to try to up your open rates, click throughs and conversions, like adding video or a link to Facebook or something like that, first look inside to see where you can tweak and improve…and increase your email marketing ROI.

As an email marketing vendor, we at ClickMail help clients figure out where and how to improve their email marketing campaigns by improving parts of them. Below is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are some major parts to analyze first, within your email marketing program, before looking outside of it for some quick fixes:

1.    From address
2.    Email subject lines
3.    Email design
4.    Email copywriting
5.    Call to action
6.    Landing page
7.    Transactional emails and welcome emails

Remember as an email marketer you have one huge advantage over other direct marketers: the ability to quickly and easily test! Any of these seven parts above can be tested, and testing should be a regular part of your email marketing process.

ClickMail strives to be an email marketing vendor that offers plenty of useful information to help. We offer tips on improving these email marketing pieces in a variety of ways, including:

·    In the resources section of the ClickMail Web site, you’ll find links to a variety of useful email marketing whitepapers
·    Our monthly email marketing newsletter offers succinct tips for improving email marketing ROI
·    This email marketing blog continually serves up useful tidbits that are short and actionable. Read through past posts and be sure to subscribe

And as an email marketing vendor, ClickMail Marketing can help by analyzing all your email marketing parts to help you figure out where to improve. Working with an email marketing vendor means improving your email marketing ROI faster so you can feel free to dive into the cool new shiny stuff everyone’s talking about. With one major difference: You’ll be way ahead of your competitors on the email side before you dip your toes into the social media side.