Welcome back to Part 2 of the Email Marketing Blog.  Last week in Part One I covered:
- Who do you send emails to?
- What kind of email do you send?
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Today I will cover:
-When is the best time to send your emails?
      -Where do you send your emails from?
      -How do you measure email campaign success?
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WHEN is the best time to send your emails?

• The answer to this question is not so black and white.  In general, studies show that sending emails on Tuesday is the best day to send emails and get a high conversion rate. Bronto did a study on this that can be viewed at http://blog.bronto.com/2008/03/07/when-is-the-best-day-to-send/.  However, different industries and demographics may determine a better day to send.  It is important to know who you are targeting and for what purpose. B2B emails typically have more success earlier in the week, before the recipient’s week gets busy.  B2C email campaigns are not so easily indentified because consumers can have very different lifestyles and schedules.   
• As for the best time of day, this can vary too.  There are three times per day which I have seen the best results. First thing in the morning around 8 AM, usually people get to work and have a chance to read their emails, around noon, another time people have a break and tend to check their emails, and finally around 4 PM, just in time for people to get home from work and check their email.  Again these times can vary based on your demographics.  Use these as guidelines when starting your email campaigns, but remember, in order to get the best response testing is needed to determine the best day and time for your specific target group.  Split your list and send them the same email at different times of day or at the same time, but on different days.  Analyze your results to determine what works best for your consumers and industry.

Where do you send your emails from?
Determining what email management system to use to send your email doesn’t seem that important, but it very important.  Here are some things to consider when choosing an email management tool:

• Does the provider abide by CAN-SPAM laws?
• Are they reputable?
• Can you upload your own HTML emails?
• How extensive is the reporting and does it cover the metrics that you need?
• Does it allow you to set-up trigger based emails if you need them?
• Will your emails be sent using a unique IP or shared IP?
• How do they handle SPAM complaints if it is using a shared IP? You don’t want someone else’s SPAM complaints getting you penalized because you are both using the same shared IP.
• If you use a CRM, is the email management tool compatible? For instance Salesforce is compatible with Vertical Response and other tools such as Bronto.
• What is the cost associated with email sends, is there a contract and does it fit your budget. 

Personally, I have found Bronto to be the best all-in-one solution. They abide by CAN-SPAM, reputable, allows you to either import your own HTML or use a template they provide, some of the best reporting features I have seen in an email management tool, and allows you to set up all kinds of trigger based emails.  Bronto also gives you options for the IP, pricing structure to fit your needs and you can purchase an API through Bronto and Salesforce so they are compatible. I feel it is very important for your CRM tool and Email management System connected so your company and sales team are aware of the conversions and actions prospects have taken.
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How do you measure email campaign success?
Measuring email campaign is a continuous process.  To know what works the best and delivers the highest ROI, you must TEST, TEST, and TEST again.  Using your email management system’s reporting features will give you a bunch of information including:

• Hard and Soft Bounces
• Open Rate
• Click-Through Rate
• Forwards
• What links within an email a consumer clicked on

But in order to completely understand the success of your email campaigns I suggest linking your emails to your website analytics, Google Analytics works great, and CRM tool.  If all pieces are running congruently, the data that will be collected will be much more substantial and better to base an analysis and improvements on.  Your analytics tool with show the email as a referrer and then you will be able to track what other pages within your site they visited and what call-to-actions, if any were taken.  Linking the CRM tool will keep all information about each prospect complete and up-to-date.  When you go into your CRM tool, it would list exactly which emails each person has gotten, what actions they took if any, even whether or not they opened the email.  So anytime someone from your company goes into Salesforce to look a lead up, you will know exactly what communications your company has had with them and be better prepared to deal with that prospect face to face.
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I have given you a lot of information to digest and think about.  Just remember, it is all about your specific needs, demographics and testing to meet your company goals and initiatives.  Please check back next week for Part 3 Email Campaigns: Who, What, When, Where and How? I will be covering Trigger based emails in detail