SMB Marketing Automation Blog » Email Marketing

Testing Your Emails – Strategies for Email Marketing Success

Lindsey Bowman — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:02:18 +0000

As a marketing automation software company, we focus on the importance of sending trigger-based marketing campaigns and engaging leads through targeted communications. Email marketing is an important component of these campaigns, so we wanted to share a few tips, best practices and reminders about how to make sure your emails are getting noticed…for the right reasons.

1. Email subject lines.

Keep them snappy. Subject lines should ideally be 50 characters or less, although one of our own email gurus says 70 characters is an acceptable length, so long as the subject line conveys a very timely and relevant message.

Tell the truth. Keep your recipients engaged by using your subject line to convey the subject matter and value contained within the email. No one likes “tricky” emails that promise something in the subject line, but don’t deliver relevant content.

2. From line.

Make it parallel. Check to be sure your company name makes sense in the context of your subject line. Nothing screams, “bogus” like a subject line touting “10 Smart Marketing Tips” with a sender name of FreeLove4Less.

Be personal. Using a real person as the sender’s email address is much more credible than the generic info@ or sales@. Also, if you are adding a personalized signature, make sure it matches the name in the “from” line.

3. Content.

Triple check spelling and grammar. Yes, we should all know this one by now, but we still see plenty of misspellings in email copy and even subject lines.

Say something interesting. It’s hard to keep recipient’s engaged, and even good offers only go so far in terms of cutting through the inbox noise. In addition to offers, make sure your content is compelling or gives recipients a reason to open your email, interact with it and come back for more.

4. Images.

Think balance. While images can reinforce the message and add visual bling to your email, it is important to find a healthy balance of text and imagery. Too many large images tend to send emails into Spam Heaven, and because many email clients suppress images upon delivery, your message needs to be clear with or without the graphics. One other important phrase here: ALT text. Don’t forget it!

Check it out. An important function of email quality assurance is testing your email in different operating systems, browsers, email clients, etc. For example, a couple of months ago Gmail made a change that caused images and templates to break. A search on Google revealed several companies including Alchemy Worx suggested adding the following to every image tag: style=”display:block” to correct the problem. The important takeaway – until this past May, the images had always displayed correctly in Gmail so a consistent testing process is key.

5. Links.

Kick those tires. Double, triple or quadruple check all of the links in your email. From personal experience, especially if you recycle newsletter templates, check the footer and image links. It is very easy to roll out new website pages or navigation, and forget those template links aren’t current when it comes time to launch the next email.

Let them opt-out. Not only is an unsubscribe link your legal responsibility, but also it is important that your unsubscribe link be prominent enough to be easily seen. Most email service providers and marketing automation platforms add them automatically to the bottom of the email so there isn’t an issue.

We hope this list provides some helpful reminders about ways to keep your email marketing looking good and generating great delivery and response rates!

Marketing Automation 101 – Stones or Beatles?

Lindsey Bowman — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:37:57 +0000

Have you ever been quietly sipping a pint or four at your local watering hole and found yourself engaged in a spirited (pun intended) debate about, “Who’s better? Beatles or Stones?” While I have my opinions and theories (and our COO has his), a few songs from both bands lend themselves perfectly to 4 steps you need to take prior to diving headlong into marketing automation.

1. Start Me Up – yes, clichéd and possibly overplayed, but legitimate advice. Before jumping into marketing automation, it makes sense to start your initiative with a clear direction and focus. First, define your pain points and how marketing automation software would ideally help solve them. From there, outline the features of the marketing automation solution and how each component can work together to reduce, if not remove, these pain points.

2. Come Together – track one on Abbey Road gives you a crucial piece of advice about shaping your marketing automation efforts – come together and get buy-in from the areas of your organization that will be working to implement the solution such as sales, IT, operations, etc. If there is any dissention about the technology, methodology or value, it is best to resolve it BEFORE you get into the nitty-gritty of implementation.

3. Paperback Writer – this catchy tune is about a novelist submitting his book to a publisher, but you get the gist of it. Great content is the foundation for a successful inbound marketing campaign. Keeping readers engaged requires educational, interesting or just plain cheeky content that is more than a chest-thumping sales pitch. Audit your current materials, identify gaps and work to produce articles, posts, videos, etc. that educate prospects in new and informative ways.

4. Time is on My Side – this song is all about patience and that’s something you’ll probably need as you fine-tune and hone your first marketing automation campaigns. As with any new platform or tool, there is always a learning curve associated with understanding how to use it, best practices, etc. Set realistic expectations with your leadership team about the different stages and objectives so everyone is on the same page.

With these four tunes in mind, you’ll be well on your way to get started with marketing automation so you aren’t singing, “The Last Time” or “Yesterday.” Who is your favorite musical muse – Beatles or Stones?

Using Marketing Automation to Spot False Alarms

Lindsey Bowman — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:37:09 +0000

Marketing automation software encompasses many features such as email marketing, lead scoring, database segmentation, website lead tracking, etc. – and when those parts are used together to shape marketing campaigns, they can qualify leads on a deeper level. But rather than toss around marketing automation phrases willy-nilly, I thought I’d share a true story and how it relates to marketing automation.

Last night as I was brushing my teeth, I heard a faint chirp that seemed to originate in the vicinity of a smoke detector in the bedroom. I hopped onto the bed to further investigate the situation, but just as I was standing there, a chirp now sounded from down the hall. As I ran toward the sound, the chirp was now audible in the basement, and then the kitchen, and then back upstairs. Clearly, the smoke detectors were mocking me.

In a desperate effort stop the torture of this incessant and mysterious chirping, I began blindly ripping detectors out of the wall, yanking at wires and batteries, knowing (but not caring) in the heat of the moment that I was destroying the first line of defense from going up in flames. Once I successfully and gruesomely dismantled all of the detectors, I sat quietly, hands full of alkaline battery goo and miscellaneous smoke detector parts until…CHIRP.

How does this story relate to marketing automation? Marketing automation, when implemented strategically, can reduce false alarms and time spent pursuing leads that just aren’t very interested in your solutions or services. Simply put, it will help you stop chasing the leads that you thought were ready to buy…but were really as cold as a dead battery in the carbon monoxide detector (the actual culprit in my real life chirping mayhem).

By automating your demand generation processes, you’re categorizing your leads based on their interactions with your website and marketing pieces. Instead of following up with leads because they opened your email or visited your homepage, you are identifying hot leads by not only their email interaction, but also by their time spent on your website, time viewing specific products, navigation through the site, and any content downloaded throughout the site.

In addition to systematically tracking each move on your site, you can configure emails that are triggered based on those actions, so you can reach out to leads at the right moment in their decision-making process. This strategy of automated, behavior-based communications can improve the lead’s engagement with you and your solution without bulking up your manual follow-up processes.

Automating your lead management process does more than increase insight into your leads’ level of interest and qualification to show you who is ready to buy – it also will show you which site visitors were just giving a few “chirps” but not really interested in your solution. Now you’ll be able to focus on the most qualified leads and eliminate those false alarms (or in my case, replacement smoke detectors).

Do you have a recent smoke detector horror story (c’mon don’t be shy) or a story about how marketing automation is helping you zero in on the right leads?

My Online Marketing Doesn’t Work and Neither Does My Golf Swing

Lindsey Bowman — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:14:52 +0000

Earlier this week, Net-Results was a participant and sponsor at the BMA Colorado PARTEE on the Green. Pun-errific name notwithstanding, the golf was a blast at the picturesque Arrowhead Golf Club, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. With a wide variety of golfing abilities and experience, everyone witnessed plenty of memorable shots, although a few might make the memory-bank for the wrong reason. As one member of our foursome looked on at an exceptionally graceless shot, she mused that online marketing is a lot like golf – while practice might make perfect, it helps to have the right foundation from the beginning.

Think about it – her statement makes a lot of sense. Even though many people hit the links regularly, with the intention of hitting ball after ball until they “get their swing right,” they may be reinforcing bad habits, inefficient techniques or worse! Ultimately, after months or years of trying to improve their skills based on the do-it-yourself-golf model, many people will become frustrated with their lack of progress and quit. Translate this scenario to online marketing – not pretty, is it?

At Net-Results, we want you to unleash both your inner rock star marketer and fantastic golfer. To that end, we’ve outlined a few components of a typical online marketing campaign and suggestions for when it’s time to visit the neighborhood pro…

1. Website Redesign. While most of us are smart enough to know we need a pro to design our website, many people insist that their website isn’t ‘working’ due to poor design. Before embarking on that 3rd redesign in 12 months, ask yourself, “What do you want your website to do?” and, “How are you quantifying success?” Based on those answers, you might find the look and feel of your website isn’t the problem, but rather, your messaging or calls-to-action are vague or unclear.

2. Search Engine Optimization. We all want to rank number one on Google for that ultra-juicy, ego-stroking, best ever search phrase, right? While it makes complete sense to focus on those high priority search terms, remember the more competitive the phrases, the more difficult it is to rank for them. If you place all of your effort on 3-4 phrases, you might be missing some tremendous value in long tail keywords. Be sure to do your homework and pick a mix of both high-value keywords along with some lower hanging, less competitive ones.

3. Email Marketing. In the good old days of 1998, you could pretty much send an email out to a list of marginal quality and anticipate double-digit open, click-thru rates and perhaps conversions. Back then, email was relatively new and inboxes were gloriously uncluttered. Sadly enough, those days are long gone and your email marketing strategy needs to reflect such changes. Marketing automation software will allow you to send smarter, trigger-based email campaigns that demonstrate improved response rates, but just like any other marketing initiative, it must be part of a well-rounded strategy.

4. Pay Per Click. Much like bullet point #2, in paid advertising, we all want that top spot on Google, Yahoo Search, etc. Let’s be realistic though, because that top spot can cost a boatload of dough. Moreover, PPC requires serious attention – it’s not like a “set it and forget it” Ron Popeil rotisserie oven. What worked well one day may be a bust in two months. With diligent campaign monitoring, you may find that the third position converts just as well as the first. Or if you concatenate high-value search terms with geographical areas, your bids might be much less expensive but still provide plenty of conversions.

5. Statistics and Metrics. Ever heard the question, “Why doesn’t my online marketing work?” I like to respond, “Because it’s lazy.” (No, not really!) That question is first rooted in defining the word, “work.” Understanding both the objectives of your marketing strategy and how you’ll measure success are critical. While social media outreach could be measured by the number of followers, mentions or retweets, PPC might only be measured by total conversions. Let me repeat, defining the objectives and then utilizing analytics/statistics to measure and track campaigns is a critical step. After all, how can you share your successes if you don’t really know what a success is?

Online marketing encompasses so much more than monitoring and optimizing these 5 parts, but much like learning how to golf, you need to pick a starting point and decide how much you want to tackle on your own and what parts need the guidance and specialized services of a pro.

How’s your golf swing and online marketing looking this summer – crisp, long drives or shanking off the fairway? Please comment below or send us a tweet.

How Soon is too Soon? Exploring Email Frequency.

Lindsey Bowman — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:41:22 +0000

About six months ago, I subscribed to a Caribbean vacation site that provides alerts for deeply discounted Caribbean vacations for last minute travel. I began to receive emails about once a week, and actually ended up purchasing a vacation through one of the alerts. All was well…until I began to receive daily, meaningless travel alerts. Some were even the same vacation offer sent six consecutive days! Even more frustrating, I received a bunch of special offer emails for the resort I just stayed at!

Sick of the volume of worthless emails, I ended up unsubscribing to a service that could have been very useful if the timing was more closely monitored and the targeting was more strategic. In thinking about this scenario, I wanted to highlight a few tips that would have been helpful for the vacation provider to utilize, as well as ways to think about your email marketing strategy.

Provide frequency expectations

If you plan to send your prospects a large volume of email communications, or a string of various emails throughout a drip campaign, giving them advance notice of the number of communications and the timeframe will help recipients set expectations…and help keep them interested (and potentially from visiting unsubscribe-ville) because they know what to anticipate from you.

Provide options

By asking a consumer how often they would like to receive emails and what type of services or product they are interested in, they are now empowered to decide the frequency and content they’ll receive. This level of control makes recipients more apt to open your emails, and to potentially purchase from you in the future.

Pay attention to the numbers

Although it’s obvious that you should be monitoring your aggregate open and click rates, you should also be monitoring your list activity and the percentage of your list that open, click and buy within a period, such as quarterly or annually.
Monitor your recency of response, the average for the last open, click or purchase. It’s a good idea to store recency in your email database as a custom field to score list members by their activity.
Break down your list frequency by dividing your lists into segments (Ex: if you segment by demographic, a younger demo may be more receptive to more frequent emails than an older demographic).
Segment your list by the length of time they have been in your contact database, as a rule, the longer a contact has been a member of your database, the less responsive they will be over time.

Test to find your optimal frequency

You don’t want to reduce email frequency for all members on your list, because this change could reduce overall sales. You should, however, aim to reduce frequency to those list members who have tuned-out of communications with the objective of engaging them more through less frequent or higher impact emails. For example, if the numbers tell you that your database isn’t very engaged or interested, you may want to only provide “breaking news” type items and limit all other communications.
Increase other communication (social media, direct mail, newspaper inserts, etc.) for less-responsive customers to see if they prefer a different medium of communication.

In addition to these tips, it is critical to remember that frequency is a two-way street. Communicating isn’t solely a function of how often you want or need to send your messages – it must incorporate how often your recipients want to hear from you.

Calibrating your ideal frequency is also due in part to how well you are able to segment and slice your database. Read more about Net-Results segmentation features.

8 Free Online Tools for Your Marketing Arsenal

Lindsey Bowman — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:00:14 +0000

“The amount of time people spend online has not increased since last year,” according to a CNET News article sourcing a report released by Forrester. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the reason for the trend – online behavior is changing. “Engagement with the online channel has deepened,” writes Forrester analyst Jackie Anderson. “Web users are becoming savvier and are better multi-taskers. Many know exactly where they want to go when they log in.”

While people aren’t necessarily spending more time online, the internet remains an absolutely essential part of everyday business and personal life, so what could explain this static usage?

Online users are becoming smarter, more knowledgeable and putting up with less…well…bologna to get to what they want. Their need for immediate results has created the demand for quick, easy and (oftentimes) free services and tools that help execute and measure social engagement, marketing campaigns, business processes, news distribution, etc.

That said, we’ve come up with a list of free tools we love that make your life easier, whether you’re creating your company’s next email marketing initiative, researching the competition, or just trying to find out who’s going to your high school reunion (so you can make your “non-biased” decision based on anticipated attendance).

1. Tiny URL.com (or bit.ly.com)
TinyUrl.com is a free website that enables you to take a paragraph long URL and shorten it into well… a tiny URL. It is especially useful for tweeting when every character matters. You can create a login so you can easily see how many clicks your adorable, truncated URLs are receiving.

2. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a valuable yet often overlooked tool. Once you’ve established a Google account, you only need to toggle Alerts and add the keywords you want to track, and the frequency in which you’d like to receive information containing your words or phrases via email. The Alerts tool is helpful for research, brand monitoring, competitive analysis, or just keeping up with any news item that contains the word, “Britney” (we’re not judging).

3. Picnik
Picnik is an online application for those of us who don’t have our Adobe Photoshop PhD (or a couple hundred bucks for the software). You can crop, edit, resize or adjust your images and photos including converting them into JPEGs, with a few quick and easy clicks.

4. Hootsuite
Too many social accounts and too little time? Use Hootsuite to manage it all for you. See who is following you, manage lists, schedule tweets for the future, track statistics, customize URLs, and much more. Plus, let’s be honest, the owl logo is incredibly cute.

5. Lightscreen
Lightscreen is the open source alternative to its not-so open source counterpart SnagIt. Lightscreen enables you grab screen captures of your entire screen, specific areas, a scrolling screen shot and more. And it saves all of your images as editable JPEGs on your desktop.

6. dBusinessNews
dBusinessNews.com is a daily news site that makes it easy to get free press release or news distribution. The site is updated on a daily basis, and it has great local and national reach to get your message out…without draining your bank account.

7. Klout
Ever wondered whether your social media efforts are a bunch of hooey and virtual glad-handing? Well, Klout has developed a scoring index that measures your reach, amplification and network influence to generate a score or number. Spark a friendly office rivalry to see who has more clout…according to Klout.

8. StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a great social media internet community that promotes sharing and recommending useful web pages, articles, photos and videos. Users can also post original articles and press releases to distribute company or personal information cost-effectively.

With the speed of communications moving more rapidly every day, and prices increasing faster than you can say, “inflation,” having free and easy tools at your fingertips is just one way we’d like to make your online marketing life easier (and enhance your multimedia search for Britney Spears).

Have a favorite free tool or app that you can’t live without? Leave a comment or tweet it @NetResults.com.

Can Vuvuzelas at the World Cup Teach Us Anything about Marketing Automation?

Lindsey Bowman — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:30:30 +0000

Soccer fans, sports enthusiasts or pretty much anyone who owns a TV knows the 2010 World Cup is well underway in South Africa. In addition to the amazing athleticism and intense displays of national pride, this World Cup will likely be remembered for another phenomenon – a three-foot trumpet-like instrument, the vuvuzela. If you’ve watched a World Cup match, you know the sound – something like a swarm of locusts that got stuck in a ceiling fan stuck on high speed.

We’re not here to take sides regarding whether the instrument is a traditional part of African soccer or a heinous ear-splitting nuisance – but we did see a parallel between the beloved (or maligned) vuvuzela and marketing automation. Think it’s not possible? Read on…

Last week, in response to literally hundreds of complaints, Britain’s BBC announced that it is exploring a way to give its viewers using digital service a mute button for the vuvuzelas. Sounds like a great idea, right? Viewers who like the vuvuzelas can enjoy the sound and everyone who doesn’t care for them can mute them.

But wait a minute…if viewers can suddenly, at will, mute certain sounds from their television sets, do you think TV show producers or advertisers will be very happy? Annoying commercials, theme music, TV hosts, etc. could be controlled with the click of a button. But that’s a topic for another day…back to how the vuvuzela debate relates to the concept of marketing automation.

It reminds us that people want to control what they see – they want to control their viewing experience, whether online, TV, their smart phone, etc. And that’s what marketing automation can help you do so well.

By communicating based on a viewer’s unique interactions with emails, web sites, blog posts, etc, a marketing automation solution can educate and qualify leads about what subject matter they find interesting. In turn, the viewer is not subjected to a myriad of communications they have zero interest in receiving. When executed properly, marketing automation can be like the proposed BBC mute button. Leads can listen to what they like and find interesting, but tune out the rest.

As an organization, you can track the ones who are “listening” and further qualify them. Those who don’t engage – who mute, or in this case, don’t interact with communications, can receive less attention. So grab your soccer spirit, vuvuzela, mute button and start automating!

List Segmentation – This Summer’s Hottest Marketing Strategy

Lindsey Bowman — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:31:39 +0000

Why is segmentation so hot right now? Simply put, it helps you send the right message to the right people. While you have been diligently growing your opt-in database, pipeline and customer base, you’ve been adding names to your internal database. Sending those members identical communications is certainly easy and convenient – but, by virtue of creating a generic message that is applicable to your entire list, it probably lacks the razor-sharp focus to make it very relevant.

Database segmentation can help! Many marketing automation platforms provide list segmentation tools that vary from simple sorting to complex conditional statements. But, thinking about segmentation can be a little overwhelming so we’ve provided a few ideas to get you started…

New Clients
While you still want to keep the lines of communication open with your new clients, once a contact has become a client, it’s time to move them to a different list, where they receive emails that are designed for clients – and not prospects. As you can imagine, it’s pretty disconcerting for an existing client to receive an email communicating a special deal for new customers. It smacks of the Triple Play cable deal where that awesome rate is only available to new customers, right?

Product Purchase Patterns
If you provide a multitude of distinct products or solutions, it makes sense to communicate with prospects or customers about their demonstrated areas of interest. You can then provide this segment specific offers or content relevant to the product line they are interested in or purchased in the past.

Industry or Title
Different vertical markets have different pain points that can be addressed through email campaigns and special offers. Similarly, personnel holding different titles within the organization may have different needs or objectives. For example, messages to a VP of Sales may differ from a VP of Marketing.

Interest Based Preferences
If you’ve conducted surveys over the past year, then you know that certain contacts have different interests that will help you classify their interest levels in various offerings related to your core product or service.

Open Rate/Click Through Rate
It’s a fairly simple concept- email list members who open your newsletter or click on a link on a frequent basis are clearly more engaged than members who do not open or click. Therefore, you can try sending a higher frequency of communications to your most engaged members to increase conversion or response.

Channels of Acquisition
Where your email members came from is known as an ‘acquisition channel’ and different acquisition channels have different characteristics. For example: Co-registration email list members will likely respond or convert differently than organically acquired email members. Communicating with your prospects with regards to how they became prospects will increase your chances of starting a conversation with them.

Geography
This is also a simple concept of segmentation that is often overlooked or used improperly. Segmenting your contacts out by their geographic location gives you the opportunity to offer local specials, events and promotions. You can also integrate local news and current events into your communications to increase their relevancy to each individual on your email marketing list.

Generic mass communication by design, is practically built to be overlooked, and by not segmenting out your audience, you are approaching all of your prospects and leads in the same manner and not addressing individual issues. Unfortunately there is no singular effort that can appeal to all types of leads and all stages of readiness, but by intelligently segmenting out your audience into specific and targeted groups, you are able to respond with appropriate marketing strategies that satisfy the many preferences of each identified segment, to eventually improve overall revenue.

10 Email Subject Line Blunders

Lindsey Bowman — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:22:29 +0000

Doesn’t it seem like it is easier to get into Buckingham Palace then to get into your prospect’s inboxes?

Unfortunately, many people still do not have a clear understanding that your subject line is your meal ticket when recipients are deciding whether to interact with your email. Because so many dishonest e-mailers have filled inboxes with free Viagra solicitations, trips to Paris, and requests for funds sent to Pakistan, they have discredited the rest of us who have legitimate messages we’d like to share.

With this challenge in mind, we’ve compiled 10 common mistakes made in email marketing subject lines you should avoid:

1. Excess Punctuation!!!!

Even using only one exclamation mark or question mark can flag spam filters because many spammers include lots of extra punctuation to draw your eyes to their email in hopes that you’re in the market for a prescription-free pain killer.

2. ALL CAPS

By using all caps, you are a red hot spam flag. Again, this tactic is another “strategy” that spammers utilize in hopes their email will draw your eyes quickly.

3. Misleading Information

If you are sending an email to your customers about discount prices on your printers, don’t title your email “Merry Christmas.” Even if it’s in December.

4. Use of Key “Bad Words”

We’re talking four-letter words, but not the ones you’re thinking. Using FREE, or any forms of the word (DISCOUNTED, SPECIAL, CUT-RATE) in your email subject line will give you a FREE ticket to your recipient’s spam filters.

5. Repetitive Subject Lines

By continuing to use the same subject line (even if it follows all guidelines) you are telling your recipients they’ve already read this email. This leads to less interaction with your email, and down the road, could land your emails in spam filter prison.

6. Too Personal

Hi, How Are You? Using personal subject lines look extremely spammy, like someone is trying to get you to open their email because they’re one of your friends. Even if it’s a follow up email, use something like “Checking In,” Or “Touching Base” to add a more professional touch.

7. First Line of Message

Do not start your email in your subject line, because your recipients may not open it to read the rest of it. Putting the main point of the email in the subject line is a better alternative.

8. Cryptic Subjects

Including numbers, symbols or currency in your subject line can make your email look like junk mail, right from the word “go.” Even if you are trying to let your recipients know that you have Samsung 23″ LCD Monitor $199 plus Sony 40″ HDTV $749, this content could be confusing and hard on the eyes.

9. Bad Spelling and Grammar

This tip seems like a no brainer, but we wouldn’t include it if we didn’t ‘sea’ it (we mean ‘see’ it). Not all email service providers have spell check mechanisms for the subject portion of your email. Your prospects, leads and customers judge your competency when you use poor grammar.

10. Too Long

Life is short, so don’t bore your recipients with subject lines longer than 50 characters!

By avoiding these email subject line mistakes, your emails will be more professional, engaging – and have a better chance of getting delivered to your prospects. Now that’s an email marketing strategy we can all feel good about!

Back to Basics: Getting Started with Email Marketing

Lindsey Bowman — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:06:10 +0000

As specialists in the field of marketing automation, it is easy to assume everyone is using email to communicate with prospects, customers and technology partners. When you stop and think about it, however, is that assumption really accurate? Are most businesses really using email – and using it effectively?

When a company is considering launching or revamping its email marketing strategy, there are tons of factors and variables to consider. In the interest of expediency (and keeping the post at a digestible length), we wanted to tackle our top 4 considerations: goal, budget, content and data quality.

• Goals. Determining the objective for your email marketing is crucial because that decision will likely shape the content, email design, and in many cases, budget. Are you trying to drive online sales, generate brand awareness and education or encourage demo sign-ups? Depending on the end-game goal, your emails and content can vary quite a bit. Additionally, without agreement on the objective, your executive team may have unrealistic expectations of ‘benchmark’ metrics or what quantifies a successful effort.

• Budget. While email marketing can be affordable, there are plenty of fixed and variable costs to consider. Fixed costs include the email service provider (ESP) or marketing automation platform. Variable costs cover: graphic design and coding, copy writing, follow-up emails, associated landing pages, promotional items or spiffs, data cleansing and list building, etc. As you can imagine, depending on how much is invested in the variable costs, email campaigns can range from hundreds of dollars to many thousands and beyond.

• Content. In order to cut through the noise of overcrowded inboxes, emails should be relevant and provide valuable content, depending on the audience and goal. If your resources are stretched thin, perform an audit of your current collateral. Case studies, press releases, blog posts, white papers and social media comments can easily be tweaked and repurposed for email campaigns.

• Data quality. Do you have clean, reliable data that can be used to generate the email distribution list(s)? The best design and content are practically meaningless if the data and lists are stale or of poor quality. Sometimes, it makes more sense to first develop a high-quality opt-in list before undertaking a major email initiative. The time and money spent generating the reliable data can pay huge dividends in the long run, in terms of response rates and actions.

By thinking about these considerations, your email campaigns can function as an efficient component of your overall marketing and demand generation strategy.