A channel that reaches out to those who have already given you permission to message them
You have a list. Maybe two thousand addresses, maybe twenty thousand, collected over the years at trade shows, through forms, and from purchases.
It’s the only audience you truly own: you don’t rent it out to a platform, and it doesn’t depend on an algorithm that changes the rules.
Then comes the awkward question: When was the last time you messaged her? And when you did message her, how many people opened it?
In most of the companies we encounter, the list exists but isn’t being used. It’s not for lack of tools—the tools are almost always there. What’s missing is a decision on who receives what, and how often.
Email marketing drives that decision, and tracks it every month using the same metrics.
An email address loses its value on its own. People change jobs, switch email accounts, and stop opening emails.
Every year, a significant portion of any database becomes inaccessible without anyone noticing.
In companies where the channel remains unprotected, three distinct things happen.
People write when they have something to sell, and the mailing list learns that this sender is always asking for something. Open rates drop with each new email.
Everyone receives everything, because segmenting requires a decision, and that decision has never been made.
You check the numbers after each submission, without comparing them to the previous submission: you see the data, but you don’t see the trend.
Email marketing brings these three elements together. It determines who we write to, how often, and what metrics we use to verify that the relationship is growing rather than fading.
There are situations in which email is more effective than any other channel. These are the most common ones among the projects we manage.
In all these cases, the work begins with the same question: Who is on that list, and what do they expect from you?
Every project follows the four phases of the FARO method. You’ll find the same sequence for every service, because it’s this sequence that makes it possible to compare results over time.
A platform handles sending: it manages lists, templates, and statistics. An email marketing service determines what to send, to whom, and when; it selects the platform based on the objectives; and it oversees delivery, consent, and data tracking.
The tool does the work; the service builds the path that leads the prospect to a decision.
In B2B, the person who receives your email rarely makes the decision on their own.
They read it, forward the message to a colleague, and come back to the topic three weeks later when the project fits within the budget.
Email is the only channel that can sustain that timeframe without incurring rising costs: a sequence that guides the evaluation process is worth more than six sales reminders.
Work changes accordingly: segments based on role rather than industry, content that helps build the internal case, and a slow, steady pace.
The craft remains the same: getting to know the audience, writing for them, and gauging their response.
The ownership of the list changes, because email marketing uses addresses from which consent has been obtained, while DEM (direct email marketing) campaigns use external, rented mailing lists.
For the entrepreneur, this means that maintaining their own list takes time and remains a company asset.
Four factors determine the size of an email project.
During our first meeting, we’ll map out these four elements and provide you with a realistic minimum benchmark for the result you have in mind, along with a timeframe for when you can expect to see the first signs of progress.
The method remains the same; what changes are the right pace, the content that warrants reaching out, and the moment when the relationship is reignited.
Five related activities: agreed-upon objectives and metrics, selection of the tool, distribution strategy, copywriting and production, and data analysis. A project activates these activities in accordance with the stated objectives, within a single plan with a single point of contact.
Email marketing relies on an in-house list, built with the consent of subscribers, and focuses on building relationships over time.
Direct email marketing (DEM) targets addresses from a third-party database, rented from specialized companies, and seeks new contacts all at once. The two approaches coexist well, each with different objectives.
Less than you might think, but with more consistency than you usually have.
One useful piece of content a month that always arrives is worth more than four mailings in a week followed by three months of silence.
The key metric to watch is unsubscribes: when they rise after an increase in frequency, you’ve crossed the line.
The first measurable indicators appear after the second or third mailing: opens, clicks, and initial inquiries. A reliable picture emerges after six months, because you need a series of mailings to compare with one another.
Using the touchpoints the company already has: a form on the website with a clear reason to sign up, lead generation at trade shows and retail locations, downloadable content, and existing customers who have never been invited.
A list built this way grows slowly and results in people opening the emails—which is the only thing that matters.
The CRM tracks the contact’s history—where they came from, what they’ve read, and where they are in the decision-making process—and the email system uses that data. The sales rep can see the messages the contact has received before calling, and the list updates automatically whenever something changes in the CRM.
Comparisons of open rates across email campaigns, clicks, unsubscribes, spam reports, leads generated, and conversion rates. These metrics are the same every month and were agreed upon before the campaign began. The absolute number of opens doesn’t tell the whole story; what matters is the change in metrics from one campaign to the next.
Three questions are more helpful than any others: What metrics will you use, and how often will we review them together? Who actually writes the emails? What remains within the company at the end of the process? The answers to these three questions say almost everything about the method.
Let’s spend an hour together reviewing the list you already have, figuring out what it can achieve, and determining which metrics we’ll use to track our progress.
By the end of the meeting, you’ll have a clear picture—one that will remain yours no matter what.
