In December, UniformMarket News began a multi-part series entitled "Tools of the Trade" focusing on the various communication instruments used to attract and retain customers. Part one covered the basics of email marketing: what it is and why you should use it. Be sure to visit www.uniformmarketnews.com if you missed it.

We delve a bit deeper in Made to Measure, exploring ways to make your emails more relevant and, thus, more likely to be opened. Getting to a person's inbox is one thing; having your message read and, hopefully, converted into a sale is an entirely separate matter.

Here, part two focuses on the importance of writing strong subject lines; in part three, we provide tips for improving the content of your email by making it relevant to the recipient. We'll also discuss the need to track your performance and how email marketing management software easily provides this service.

Part 2: Subject Lines
What Works and What Doesn't

For years, marketers have used email to reach customers and prospects, citing its ease, quickness and effectiveness as a channel of communication. Never meant to replace other efforts, it is used as a marketing adjunct, a way to reach customers in an ever-changing and high-tech world.

And now that world is changing again. The advent of social networking, Twitter, Facebook and other sharing sites have caused some to suggest that email is on the way out. Articles on the topic appear frequently, including one oft-mentioned Wall Street Journal piece.

Yet news of email's demise is premature. Online communication patterns are shifting, with customer preferences changing at rapid-fire pace, but email still plays a pivotal role and is still the form most used to share information. "To say that email marketing is dead is to say the telephone or direct marketing is dead," says Dan Mendelson, president of Unitex Direct, a Michigan distributor specializing in security and law enforcement wear. "Marketing always reaches a new level of sophistication, but the old forms don't go away completely." You just need to offer the channel that best suits an individual's needs and preferences, and in the uniform industry, at least for now, that vehicle is email marketing.

Good First Impression with Subject Line

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. It's a concept that rings true in an industry that recognizes the link between clothing and perception. And it's an idea that also applies to email marketing. Done correctly, email not only boosts sales, but increases your reputation as an authority, as someone whose opinion is valued and trusted.

How do you accomplish this? By making your email content relevant to the reader. The body of your email, whether a letter, product information or newsletter, is the antithesis of the boilerplate press release or marketing form letter. Email is more personalized, tailored to a customer's or audience's specific needs.

The greatest content will go unread, however, unless you get the recipient to open your email. To do this, you need a good first impression – a compelling subject line. "It's critical," says Mendelson. "It's the equivalent of opening an envelope. If it appears interesting or important, you're likely to open it. Otherwise, it gets deleted."

When you write subject lines, you basically have three choices: You can make an announcement or give news, make the reader curious, or emphasize how the reader will benefit from opening your email.

Out of these three techniques, you will be most successful if you write subject lines that state a clear benefit, one that tells the reader exactly how he is going to save money or save time or make his life easier by opening and reading your email. Try including an offer; like any other campaign, email marketing success soars when you provide a discount or offer in the subject line. If you set a time limit or expiration, your response grows even more. But make the offer realistic; "Uniform Business Offers 100% Commissions Up Front" sounds too good to be true and will be quickly routed to the trash.

Remember, the best subject lines are framed from the recipient's point of view. When writing one, ask yourself a simple question: "Would my customer want to read this?" If the answer is no, toss it and start again.

Avoiding Pitfalls: Dos and Don'ts

First-rate email subject lines are descriptive and provide the reader with a reason to explore your message further.

In this particular instance, less is more. Subject lines should be short and to the point. It's easy to become overzealous, cramming in as much information as you can. But be forewarned, studies indicate that shorter subject lines are better, no more than 60 characters including punctuation and spaces. To shorten your subject line, try to integrate colons and other punctuation to separate your thoughts. For example, turn "Uniform Business announces availability of Lunch & Learn workshops through February 28" to "Uniform Business: Lunch & Learn Workshops Through 2/28."

Avoid attempts to stand out in the inbox by using splashy phrases. This will invariably result in your email being ignored. Stay away from spam-triggering words like "free," "guaranteed," or "approved." You should also avoid using unnecessary marks like exclamation points. Excessive symbols don't improve response but instead diminish it.

You might, however, want to incorporate your company name into the subject line. By doing so, you promote and reinforce your brand, increase credibility and let your readers know that your email is from a trustworthy source. Research also suggests that personalizing the subject line with the recipient's name boosts the open rate. Many email programs have code that allows this to happen automatically based on your database of information.

Using popular keywords or phrases like "how to" or "tips" is another great way to get your email opened, as long as you can back it up with a solution to the recipients' needs. For no matter what you think, good email marketing isn't about you; it's all about them.

Part 3: Email Marketing Content
Making it about Them

If you're not providing value to the reader, then you're a spammer. Find that statement too bold? Consider this: the general public is bombarded with images, offers and information like never before thanks to the digital age. With so much information out there, it's no wonder that customers are becoming increasingly selective, often basing their decisions on what to read in a matter of seconds. This is certainly the case with email. Unlike catalogs or magazines which can linger in an office for decades, an email message can hit the trash bin as quickly as it landed in an inbox.

Yes, the ultimate goal is to convert this connection into a sale, but email doesn't exist just so you can send coupons or announcements to your customers. Having a great product or service to market is fine, but being able to tell its story is different. Rather than launching into a sales message, make the email about them.

Instead of focusing on what you sell, write about how what you sell can solve a customer's problem. Introduce your product or service as an afterthought, a solution to part of their concern.

Just as the subject line is there to get the email opened, your content, too, needs to do its job – get them to read the rest of the email. And good content is what your readers are looking for. You might not, and probably won't, convert your message into a sale with just one email, but you'll certainly gain credibility and relevancy with your audience.

And in the world of email marketing, the name of the game is relevancy. "I don't want to just use up space," says Mendelson. "I know time is valuable."

Build Relationships, Not Sales

Unitex Direct has used UniformMarket's Post Office to design, send and track its email marketing campaigns since 2007. In that period, the company has used a variety of strategies to peak interest, including revamping the look of materials and hiring outside writers to compose messages. "I try to include something that improves someone's day from a professional standpoint," notes Mendelson.

Lately, he's sought the expertise of industry insiders, incorporating their advice and opinions in emails sent to customers. He says, "These are usually people I've met at conventions or seminars. I ask to interview them and they're thrilled. It not only gives them a free forum, but it labels them an expert."

It also heightens the image of Unitex Direct. By taking a customer-centric approach to email marketing, the company increases its reputation and its overall value in the uniform marketplace, attributes which better position Unitex Direct for future growth.

By and large, the purpose of email marketing is to build relationships. Most often, that relationship is between companies and their customers, but there are other connections that can also be valuable. In the case of Unitex Direct, Mendelson's mailing list includes not only customers and prospects but some suppliers as well. "I want them to see that I'm promoting their product," he adds.

For Perfection Uniforms, a manufacturer that supplies the law enforcement community, email marketing reinforces its stance as an environmentally-aware business. "It's very eco-friendly, and our customers really appreciate that," says Miranda Brock, marketing manager.

A newcomer to UniformMarket Post Office, Perfection uses email to alert customers about upcoming shows and to provide information on its products. "We're just getting started," Brock points out.

Yet Perfection already has learned a successful email tactic. Rather than sending to everyone on its list, the company segments its mailings, meaning that different messages are sent to different customers based on interest.

Quality over Quantity, and Don't Forget to Track

This is another important concept: for the purposes of email marketing, size does not matter. Aim to build a good quality relationship with people who want to hear from you rather than just focusing on how many names are on your list. Don't bother the people who probably aren't interested; they won't be impressed by your marketing prowess.

Build your list before the sale, attend events, host workshops, and don't forget about the phone. Remember, quality trumps quantity any day of the week.

How do you determine the warm leads from the cold? By tracking who reads your email.

One of the most important features offered by email service providers is the ability to accumulate data so that you can figure out who is most likely to be interested in something. For instance, with UniformMarket's Post Office you can track everything from how many emails were opened to each individual link clicked, meaning you can hone your techniques and improve performance. You also have the ability to test different subject lines, images and content to further improve your results.

A Unitex Direct experience illustrates the point. After interviewing a key industry figure, the company sent its newsletter to non-customers as well as customers. After reading, one prospect forwarded the email to another person, and Unitex Direct was able to track the movement. "They saw it as valuable, which may result in a sale down the line," says Mendelson.

Both Unitex Direct and Perfection Uniforms employ several different strategies in their marketing efforts, a recognition of the need for variety in communication messages. The American attention span is notoriously short, and it is even shorter online. To be effective, you need to vary both the message and the form in which it is delivered. If you haven't tweaked the look of what you're sending in over a year, now's the time for a change. If your look is stale, what does that say about your brand?

Try different formats, such as newsletters, short letters or special promotions. Include a call to action, a request for the recipient to do something, like clicking to your website or downloading a free article. Variety is, after all, what keeps life and emails interesting.

While email marketing is still young compared to direct mail, concrete data is beginning to show definite trends when it comes to what is most effective. Other ideas gleaned from email marketing experts include:

• Send emails that include coupon codes or special offers.
• Send emails with no coupon that make a point of saying there's no coupon.
• Have your emails come from real people, not a business or association.
• Run a series of emails that are related but different.
• Announcing something big? Send an email that says you're going to announce something big and offer a sign-up link for people who want to be the first to know what it is.
• Promote something you're not charging for.
• Send a one-question survey about something that your audience is interested in and tell them you will send them the results. This is different from a survey
  about something you want to know about your audience that's of use only to you.
• Launching something new? Send a teaser email with a quiz or puzzle that is related to what you're going to announce.
• Send lists, but don't make them lists of 10 or 5. Make them lists of 4 or 7 or 12 which is more unusual and thus more interesting. Here are several examples: "Top 4 Questions We Get About…" or "7 Ways People Are Solving X Problem."

Businesses engage in email marketing because it works. And it works well, if it's done right.