Your Email Program: Time for A Tune-Up -- Or A Blow-Up?

Author:

Loren McDonald

Source:

You never know where inspiration is going to strike and make you change the way you do things. For me, it was this quote, tweeted (and retweeted extensively) by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh: "As you grow older, you'll find that the only things you regret are the things you didn't do."
 
Zachary Scott seduced Joan Crawford with that line in the classic film "Mildred Pierce," but it also applies to the way you run your email-marketing program.
 
If you could start your email program all over, what would you change, and what would you retain? If you took over a program someone else started, are you perpetuating old practices just because that's the way they've always been done?
 
Focusing on the Trees or the Forest?
 
We talk a lot about optimizing email-marketing programs here in Email Insider columns, at industry conferences, in Webinars and white papers, in tweets and blog posts. There's nothing wrong with this. In fact, perpetual optimization is a habit that all marketers should adopt.
 
But expending your limited resources only on a tiny improvement here and a tweak there -- subject lines, say, or where to put the unsubscribe link in the email template -- can distract you from going for the break-through opportunity that will drive dramatic increases in revenue, generate more high-quality leads, increase loyalty or accomplish whatever your email and business goals are...
 
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