Email Marketing

We're sure you've heard of email marketing and are probably even using it in some form. It has become an essential part of every digital marketing strategy. But what comprises an effective, targeted email marketing campaign? What has changed in the world of email marketing? And how much value does it truly bring to your overall marketing mix?

WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING?

In general, you can look at email marketing as email communications (whether manual or automated) that you send out to prospects to convert them into a sales opportunity. But as a marketer, it’s essential to understand all of what email marketing can do for your business. Yes, email marketing allows you to nurture and convert prospective business relationships, but its real value is to build existing customer loyalty and increase your overall brand awareness. leading to an ever-increasing demand for your product or service.

Email marketing is one of many channels in a typical digital marketing strategy. Others include SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC (pay-per-click), and much more. But email marketing continues to provide one of the highest MROI (marketing return on investment). Email marketing has an average ROI of $38 for each $1 spent. But not all emails are created equal. To yield these great results, you need to craft compelling emails and to understand what email marketing is not.

WHAT EMAIL MARKETING IS NOT

Successful email marketing campaigns incorporate strategy, personalization, and a reasonable frequency. But all too often, marketers execute invasive, ineffective "eblast" marketing. Here are some things marketers should avoid when it comes to email marketing:

“Spraying-and-Praying”: These days, blasting your house list with one-size-fits-all messaging just doesn’t cut it anymore. Think about it –– not everyone in your email database will open the same email merely because they’ll each have individual interests and attributes. Segment your lists to ensure your message is on target, and you’re maximizing your marketing effort.

List Purchasing: No matter how tempting it might be, do NOT purchase email lists. Not only is a purchased list pretty ineffective email marketing technique, but frequently ESPs on a shared IP address won’t even allow you to buy lists. Why? Because one customer’s incorrect email address can seriously hurt the deliverability of all the other customers on the same IP address. And lastly, most lists available for purchase are typically not high in quality.

Flying Blind: If you’re not consistently tracking the open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates of your email marketing campaigns, then you may as well have never sent an email in the first place. How will you know how effective your email marketing plan is unless you actively measure its performance? Most email marketing packages and marketing automation platforms include reporting capabilities so you can double down on what works and ax what doesn’t.

EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES

Set clear goals for your campaign. Nothing will derail a consistent marketing effort more than a lack of clearly defined goals. Whether you have established sophisticated objectives through a complete marketing plan, or have simple goals such as increasing attendance for an upcoming event, it's important to understand your goals for email marketing.

Get permission. If you want to execute a successful email marketing campaign, the first thing you’ll need to do is get “permission” from your recipients. Permission marketing (also known as inbound marketing) is the privilege, not the right, of delivering personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them. This fact means you’ll want to email prospects who have opted in or indicated their interest in learning more about your company. These respondents could be website visitors who fill out a form to download content, request to hear from a salesperson or subscribes to your blog or newsletter.

Personalize. Sending an impersonal or irrelevant email will earn you a first class ticket to the spam folder. When an email is not personalized, 52% of customers say they’ll find somewhere else to go. How can marketers prevent this?

With marketing automation, you can track your contact’s website and email behaviors. Is there a particular product or service page on your website that she keeps visiting? Send her an email suggesting that product or service. Has she downloaded certain content pieces? Send her a similar element. Stay relevant, and you’ll earn your contact’s trust.

Segment your lists. One easy way to create personalized, targeted messaging is by segmenting your lists. You can segment your contacts by a variety of criteria, like demographics, location, job title, etc. You could also segment by buyer persona, to make your message even more targeted. For example, Cindy CEO may require different messaging than Andy Account Manager or Mary Marketing Manager.

Pay attention to deliverability. The world of email deliverability is changing, and while it may seem strange for marketers, it’s imperative to only interact with engaged leads.

Why? Your domain reputation is critical. ISPs are growing increasingly sophisticated in their battle against spam and unwanted email. In addition to tracking engagement, ISPs are now tracking your sending domain.

But there are significant positives this new era of deliverability. For example, since SharpSpring introduced email engagement tools, customers have seen higher overall opens and clicks. Also, suppressing email sends to disinterested recipients has already increased customers’ reputations with ISPs as well.

No matter what your goals are for your email marketing efforts, WT Digital can help you accomplish them. Let's talk! Just click here to get in touch, or call 404-348-4921.