In a field as tumultuous as marketing, email has stood the test of time and remained a critical element to all successful marketing plans. Undeniable in its reach, businesses return to the simple framework that affords brands a platform to educate and build brand stories. If your email marketing strategy hasn’t advanced with the needs of your audience, it could be time to review your content and approach and start setting sustainable goals.
Customer experience is more key
Customer experience has gripped the minds and mechanics of creative thinkers, no longer filling inboxes with mass-produced messages that fail to land, let alone convert. In a densely competitive market, subscribers expect eDMs to address their core needs, delivered with the appropriate frequency. Depending on your business, a direct email marketing strategy should follow a lead funnel design which slowly develops the interest and advocacy of your audience, with retention and acquisition respective goals. If you’re unsure where to start, assess your current mail-out by doing some heat mapping and ensure you satisfy the three CX pillars – helpfulness, personalisation and customer focus. If there is nothing in it for your audience, you have missed the opportunity.
Complement your existing channels
Rather than viewing your channels as individual streams with unique goals, marketers have adopted a blended approach to channel performance. Email marketing is nurturing by design which makes it easy to complement your activity, building on your social and SMS marketing campaigns. If you are opening a new store or launching a campaign, you can announce this through your eDM. From there, you begin building out the ‘consideration’ phase on social and then finally push that immediacy through SMS marketing. The best part? Your emails can continue to fire through the lifecycle of this news announcement, playing a key role in your blended channel approach.
Get an email marketing lead
For most businesses, sending out an EDM is a rushed effort in an attempt to drum up some last-minute sales, or fill some sort of gap. By not appointing a project lead in this space, you are not giving this channel its due. Not to mention leaving opportunities on the table. Your dedicated project lead will champion the content focus, distribution and post-send analytics to fine-tune the next release. It’s also an idea to appoint a copywriter in this space if your subject lines are not delivering the open rates you are after your CTA’s are not performing as they should be. A skilled copywriter will be able to integrate your brand tone with contextual CTA’ and compelling preheaders. Your email marketing strategy should be clearly defined and adhered to with the same rigour you would extend to your existing channels.
A/B test your content
Split testing is alive and well and frequently utilised by brands looking to gain an edge on competitors and further segment their customers. When it comes to email marketing split testing, nothing is off-limits and there is so much you can be testing and learning from each email release. Start testing one element at a time; subject line, from line, preview text, email copy and CTA. You will be surprised to learn the sentiment and persuasion of your audience, finally eradicating ‘gut feelings’ from playing any part of your email construction.
Give your email marketing efforts a little more juice, and see a difference in your traffic and bottom line. These changes won’t come overnight, so take your time and listen to what your audience is telling you with every click, open, and conversion.