[I get paid if you buy a copy – full disclosure. It’s a dang good book though.]
When someone tells me that, to improve my e-mail marketing, I need to “write more compelling content”, my first impulse is to hit them with something heavy and unforgiving. These kinds of vague pronouncements are like telling me I can lose weight by eating less and exercising more.
Marketing Sherpa has mastered the art of not doing that, which is why I am an unabashed Sherpa fanboy. I love their books.
Their 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide is no exception.
It’s chart geek heaven, with hundreds of images showing you what works and what doesn’t, heatmaps showing you where folks look and click in e-mails and case studies.
A new addition, though, is their 12-Point Plan to improve e-mail marketing. It’s a very cool step-by-step for getting more out of your newsletter, special offers or whatever else you’re using.
Some details include:

• How to know whether you’re spamming.
• Improving open rates.
• Techniques to test e-mail creative, subject lines and opt-ins.
• Lots and lots of advice, tips and commiseration from other marketers, so you know you’re not just getting theoretical meanderings.

This may have been in last year’s guide, but if it was, I was too far into a Vicodin-induced haze to remember it.

I’ll warn you: It’s pricey: At $397 a copy it might cause palpitations. But we made that back on a single mailing to a 1,000-member list.
So, if you want a great e-mail marketing encyclopedia that gives you real, actionable advice (gasp), buy this book: