I conduct a lot of training and education helping companies learn how to perform basic email nurture marketing. If you are using email and not performing nurturing as your email list members “digitally age”, then your campaign is outdated.

Amanda Gagnon penned a great article on the basics for getting started, along with some easy-to-follow advice and tips.

Bottom line: you should send different messages/offers/content to different segments of your customer list. Segment your list by type of customer, past behaviors (purchases, etc.) or length of time on your list. These are easy segmentations. You don’t even need special software to get started if your lists are small enough and don’t change that frequently (beyond adding new members and unsubscribing others).

When you’re really ready to get things going, you’ll want to invest in bulk emailing solution (such as MadMimi, Constant Contact, Exact Target, Vertical Response, and so on)… and then when you are REALLY ready to perform behavioral-based nurturing, you’ll want something like Eloqua or Marketo.