Kick Your E-mail Campaigns Into High Gear

Preferences and Psychographics. When registering customers for your e-mail list, ask for more than just a name, city and state, McDonald advises. Ask for their interests.

For example, if you sell winter sports equipment, you know that snowboarders, downhill skiers and cross-country skiers have different interests and buy different items. You wouldn’t expect many snowboarders to open an e-mail with a subject-line offer for a 20-percent discount on Rossignol downhill skis, right? Even though you may have a similar offer on snowboards within that e-mail, how many snowboarders do you reasonably think will even open the e-mail with a subject line touting downhill skis? That’s why it’s best to segment and send different e-mail offers and campaigns to different people based on their interests, says McDonald.