E-mail Marketing: Test for Success

* Don’t waste good creative. Sierra Trading Post often will launch an e-mail campaign on a Monday, and find that 75 percent of recipients don’t open it. Williams admited that the e-mails could be getting trapped in spam filters or simply are deleted. But on the chance that customers don’t see the message, he sends it again on Friday to the 75 percent that haven’t opened it. Although the open rate usually is low--no more than 5 percent usually--Williams said during his presentation that clickthrough rates for those who open the second e-mail are much higher than normal.