Email Marketing Best Practice Guide: a review

Review by Mark Brownlow, February, 2010 |

Econsultancy (one of my favorite digital marketing resources) just released the 146-page "Email Marketing Best Practice" guide. It sells for 150 euro (US$200+) and has Dr. Dave Chaffey as lead author. Dr. Chaffey is one of those rare people who is genuinely expert in a wide range of digital marketing fields. I can only assume he never sleeps.

Given that talent, the report ought to be worth the asking price. Let's see if it is.

The premise of the guide is simple. It defines five effectiveness and five efficiency factors that make up email marketing success, then explores each one in depth.

So ten chapters make up the core of the report, each reflecting one of those success factors:

All the topics are dealt with competently, using email examples to support the concepts tackled, and sprinkled with best practice recommendations and practical tips. But does the report distinguish itself from the many email marketing tomes already out there?

Yes, thanks largely to a content approach that encourages you to think more strategically and holistically. One that helps you understand how and where to improve.

It's not like we don't know we could be doing more with email. But aside from a lack of resources, one problem is that there are so many improvements we could make, we really don't know where to begin.

By outlining how to evaluate your current situation (and providing a tool for doing so) and describing the pathways to improvement, the report lets you build a detailed and comprehensive blueprint for the future that you can tackle one step at a time...knowing that each step you take (however small) is going to boost your bottom line.

Such strategic and planning issues are rarely tackled in this field and are a real highlight, especially at the level of detail the report goes into. You are encouraged to think about email in a more sophisticated and structured way, moving beyond opens and clicks, broadcast mail and standalone campaign thinking.

In terms of practical tips you can implement today, not all subjects get the same level of treatment.

Some chapters are full of immediately actionable, practical advice (like the chapter on templates), others you need to see more as road signs (like the chapters on list quality or deliverability), telling you what you need to focus on in terms of information, skills and technology development.

I would have liked, for example, to see a more nuanced treatment of reactivation campaigns, since this is likely to become a core topic in the coming months. But you can't have everything on one book.

One criticism won't win me any friends at Econsultancy: sloppy editing. The report needs another edit to tidy up sentence structure and eliminate unnecessary mistakes like word repetition or unhelpful formatting. Obviously it's not a big deal, but it doesn't always make it a smooth, easy read.

Who should read it?

I would not read this as your very first reference on email marketing. You would be overwhelmed, even if some of the chapters (like copywriting) include advice for all levels of email experience.

Those most likely to benefit will have some email experience behind them, or at least an understanding of email marketing basics.

The report becomes an absolute must-read for those in larger organizations looking to review, improve and build out their email marketing efforts. You benefit from the immediate changes you can make in, for example, newsletter layouts, while also seeing where you need to make progress in how you approach, plan, execute and evaluate your email strategy.

Instead of buying the report though, you might want to spend an additional 45 euro (US$60+) for an Econsultancy annual membership. That gets you access to this best practices report and hundreds of other digital marketing and business reports of a similar high quality.

(Disclaimer: I provided some review input to an earlier draft of the report and those are affiliate links.)