Three Big Hairy Audacious Goals for Your Email Marketing Program in 2010

Need any help defining  Big Hairy Audacious Goals for your email marketing program in 2010? Here are three worth considering:

1. Let bygones be bygones; stop mailing to inactive segments of your list. As much as it may hurt to admit it, some relationships just aren't meant to last. If your subscriber has given you the cold shoulder the past few months (or  years) by not opening or clicking-through your messages, your email relationship is over. ISPs are demonstrating less and less patience for mailers who relentlessly contact uninterested users and continuing to do so will have long-term, painful consequences for your email program (see, for example, what AOL recently had to say about this.) In 2010, forget about the past, and commit to building an energized subscriber-base now and in the future.

2. Get over your social anxiety and get on the social media bandwagon! Conversations are happening about your products and brand whether you're at the party or not, so might as well put on your best face and join in the fun. Fun is the key word here. Be creative about using email to get people blogging, Facebooking and Tweeting away about you. Also think about how you can recruit your social media fanatic customers to help build your email list with new, active and highly engaged subscribers.

3. Bet the farm on mobile. 234 million people will access email on a cell phone this year. 392 million the year after that; and more than 1 billion will by 2013. (source). If you want to be an "industry leader," now is the time to embrace this trend with strategic adjustments to your email program that exploit the massive potential of being able to communicate with your customers via email any time, anywhere.

How do these sound to you?  Please share your thoughts -- including any additional "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" you may have for your email program in 2010 by leaving a comment.

Happy New Year all!

- Jordan Cohen

Sr. Director, Marketing and PR