One of the underlying attitudes in the Western Hemisphere has been the tendency to think whatever moves faster, looms larger or costs more must necessarily be better.

This mindset has even shaped our presuppositions about email marketing. After all, isn't it logical that the larger our email list, the greater the response? It may seem "logical," but it isn't necessarily true.

Chip House, a highly respected email marketing proponent, has reported that list size alone does not create email marketing effectiveness.

"First," says House, "lists are made up of people, right? Simple concept, but this is lost on many marketers. To effectively entice each person on to your list, you have to be offering something (information, products, deals, community) that this specific individual is looking for and interested in."

House continues, "...then why don't more marketers stick with this simple truth? (Because) more are interested in saying what they want to say rather than tailoring the pitch by audience."

Many companies and organizations, starting out with relatively small email lists, have created strong e-marketing programs by communicating what each of their subscribers wants to hear...not en masse, but in small groups of persons with common interests and needs.

Mr. House continues, "The marketing program continues to deliver relevant information over time by interacting with them, watching how they respond and behave (in order) to drive the right messaging at the right time and medium."

That's called "relevance."

Why is relevance so important? Relevance creates "perceived value" (a personal connection) in each subscriber's mind. And perceived value leads to "subscriber satisfaction." Subscriber satisfaction leads to "subscriber loyalty." Subscriber loyalty leads to costless "subscriber promotion." And subscriber promotion leads to expanded subscriber lists.

House observes, "Our internal statistics show that the size of a list is more predictive of response rate than any other measure, be it category (B2B/B2C), or industry (retail, news, travel, etc.). That isn't to say that some senders with millions of addresses on their list can't have great response rates; it's that they achieve that rate by communicating to smaller segments of customers-or really, smaller lists, and ultimately individuals."

House wraps up: "At the end of the day it is all about making an appeal to an individual's wants and needs." Finally he concludes, "Didn't the term 'blasting' die yet? Please let 2008 be the year."

Email marketing is most successful when marketers customize their "calls to action" to the unique wants and needs of specific subscribers. Every successful journey begins with a single step, so get started now-even with a short subscriber list.

*Chip House was named to BtoB Magazine's 2005 "Who's Who in B-To-B," for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues, using his 18+ years of direct marketing and ten years of Internet marketing experience, working with such companies as ExactTarget, Digital River and Fingerhut Corporation.

Mr. House holds a degree in economics and management from St. Olaf College in Minnesota, as well as marketing MBA coursework at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis.