Small-business owners have monkeyed around with mass e-mail
campaigns for years. We started out with software like Outlook, ACT!,
and GoldMine, which merged and lobbed generic messages to groups of
customers and prospects.

More recently, many of us have turned
to e-mail-marketing vendors to hone our electronic attacks. These
services manage campaigns by allowing recipients to opt out and feeding
the interested with more information. Better yet, these easy-to-use,
database-driven tools--many customizable, down to the logos and
graphics--are also cheap: usually under $100 per month to blast
thousands of e-mails.

But just because e-mail campaigns are
becoming more common doesn't mean their architects are getting better
at crafting them. The big problem: relevance--as in, the lack of it.

This isn't rocket science. When Staples
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sends a message plugging free shipping, that's a lot less compelling
than a special offer on printer cartridges you've purchased before.
Likewise, learning that Borders
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is offering 30% off best-sellers is nice, but how about 30% off titles
by your favorite author or on a subject you're interested in?

Of
course, the fact that you can operate a car doesn't mean you can drive
it very well (just ask Britney Spears). The same goes for e-mail
campaigns: Blasting a product ad to millions isn't particularly
effective--unless you're hawking mortgages, stock tips or Viagra.

"The more relevant [the] message to the recipients' interests, the more
likely [it will] rise above the other messages," says Eric S. Groves, a
senior vice president at Constant Contact.

Groves
should know. His firm provides e-mail marketing services to over
150,000 small companies. It also offers free guidance, including live
Webinars, recorded tutorials, white papers and a newsletter called
"Hints & Tips." As for performance, Constant Contact manages to
successfully deliver 97 out of every 100 e-mails, according to Return
Path, an independent e-mail tracking firm.

It's not that sending
the right message to the appropriate people is hard--it's that too few
business owners take the time to do it.

Mark Sperling is one of
them. His company, Girls Learn To Ride, teaches women extreme sports,
like skateboarding, BMX, motocross and other activities most of us
would avoid. Sperling knows his customers have a variety of interests:
A snowboarder might not be thrilled to know about the best waves on the
West Coast, and a teenager couldn't care less about spa treatments for
older athletes.

That's why Sperling takes the time to carve up
his audience before trying to reach them. "We have segmented lists," he
says. "That way, we can send out relevant e-mails [about] upcoming
events in a sport that matches the profile of the athlete." The same
logic applies to different product lines.

Sperling sends out six
to eight messages a month. These include a newsletter, which goes to
his entire database; a weekly news e-mail for those who ask to receive
it; "event update" or custom e-mails segmented by age, location or
sports interest; and periodic surveys. Costs: about $150 a month to
Constant Contact. Sperling also pays a few bucks to cover the time his
in-house staff spends tailoring the messages. Result: Click-through
rates have jumped 10% to 35%.

For all that smart targeting, it's
still hard to get people to open e-mails unless they recognize the
sender immediately. According to a 2002 survey from DoubleClick, 60% of
respondents cite the "From" line as the most important factor
motivating them to open e-mails.

If a brand name is more memorable than a personal name, use it
in the "From" line. Avoid using generic addresses like sales@ or info@.
Also, keep the "From" name consistent and recognizable in all of your
e-mails.

The "From" line is important, but the subject line is
where you set the trap. The key is attracting attention with imagery
and specificity. Example: A subject line that reads "Five Plants Deer
Won't Eat" is more compelling than "Monthly Newsletter."

Remember: When it comes to e-mail marketing, it's all about quality, not quantity. Take the time to do it right.