1. Make sure an email marketing campaign is right for you. The adage, "Would you jump off a bridge, too?" comes to mind here. Email marketing in the insurance vertical can be tough—make sure to identify your objectives from the outset and make sure email marketing can help you achieve them.
2. Deliver something valuable. Whether you're sending out a monthly newsletter or a reminder to shop their insurance again after six months, pinging consumers with valuable information will have a more favorable impact (read: intruder v. helping hand) than filling their inboxes with cleverly disguised SPAM advertisements.
3. Allow recipients to opt out of future emails. Yes, even to newsletters. Not allowing recipients to opt out of future communications is a major no-no. Make sure to include an "unsubscribe" or "opt-out" link at the bottom of all emails. And, for added comfort, make sure to include a note about privacy. Something stating that you won't give or sell their information to a third-party can give the user a warm fuzzy—and might keep them from opting out.
4. Work with a reputable mass emailing company. If you're sending your communication out to more than a few customers, you'll probably want to work with an outside company to help you coordinate your efforts. The creative team at InsureMe has some experience here. I asked our Director of Marketing, Lori Reed, to share her biggest lesson learned from working with a mass emailing company:

   I can’t speak for all mass mailers, but we were under the mistaken impression that they would carefully guide us on what to do, and when to do it. I was rudely surprised to see on a Sunday night that our emails, sent from the mass emailer’s servers, were blacklisted by some major companies, including AOL, Yahoo and MSN. I thought the third-party would have contacted those companies and stopped the mailing before it did any damage. They didn’t. I'd say they warned us about such an event, but they didn’t intervene on our behalf.

   The good news was AOL (et al) didn’t blacklist our company’s emails sent from our internal servers, but they had our name and we were very concerned that they just might...and then we would have been out of business.

   Take heed, y'all. Take heed.



5. Track and measure your performance against your goals. Don't stop at measuring the number of opens you get. EmailLabs recommends implementing a classic A/B test for your email campaigns, the results of which can even show you which day of the week draws the most clicks and which subject lines are all-out tire kickers.
6. Get acquainted with email laws—and work within them. U.S. federal law has enacted the CAN-SPAM law to keep consumers safe from unscrupulous online marketers. Be aware of these laws and work within them—not doing so can get you in some serious hot water.
7. Preview your email before it's sent. You need to see exactly what your recipients are going to see—before the email is sent. If you're outsourcing your email campaign, make sure you get to see the final product before it's sent out across the intarweb.

Personally, I fall on the skeptical side when it comes to email marketing, and maybe that's because we've had some problems with it in the past. But I agree that it can be lucrative if you outline your goals from the outset, do your research, and partner with a reputable mass mailing company.

For more tips on email marketing, head over to the EmailLabs Resource Center. I was impressed with what I found there.