Ten Steps for Developing an Effective E-mail Strategy

E-mail strategy is a lot like teaching someone to ride a bicycle: work directly with an eager student and a bike, and it's a can-do proposition. But ask me (or anyone else, for that matter) to write out directions students can use to teach themselves to ride a bike, well, that's a much greater challenge.

Here are the 10 steps you need to take to develop an effective e-mail strategy:

1. Identify qualitative goals.
2. Analyze the current situation.
3. Complete a competitive analysis.
4. Define the target audience.
5. Determine which types of e-mail meet your needs.
6. Develop a content strategy and a frequency and send schedule.
7. Design the e-mail template.
8. Create quantitative goals.
9. Compile budget and ROI projections.
10. Evaluate results and tweak the strategy accordingly.