Email Marketing 101

Whether e-mail is clinically addictive or merely figuratively so is in dispute. That it encourages obsessive behavior isn't. The average American e-mail user checks his or her inbox five times a day, according to AOL. What smart marketer doesn't want to be where customers fanatically look?

Sierra Trading Post, a seller of discount apparel and outdoor gear, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, started its e-mail program in 2001 as a way to move clearance items. Today it advertises several sales a month, including the occasional e-mail exclusive. The company, with more than $100 million in annual revenue, narrowly slices the audience for its mailings based on customers' buying history. Highly targeted campaigns have achieved open rates, the percentage of e-mailees who actually open the message, as high as 35% and conversion rates, the percentage of recipients who buy something, of 5% to 10%, says Marc Angelo, Sierra's online marketing manager.

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