Email marketing is a cost-effective tool that is often overlooked. Don’t let this happen. Email marketing is alive and well — not to mention among the most effective tools in your digital marketing arsenal, particularly when you integrate it with other digital strategies, like video, mobile, SEO, and display advertising.
According to a Litmus infographic, email marketing continues to be unmatched when it comes to ROI (return on investments). For every dollar spent on email marketing, advertisers receive a whopping $36 in return.
DOES EMAIL MARKETING REALLY WORK?
The answer, as so often the case with any marketing strategy, is “it depends” on many variables. It’s fair to say, however, that businesses that effectively leverage email marketing best practices tend to achieve remarkable results. Consider, for example, these email marketing metrics from WordStream:
- Almost 60% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective strategy for revenue generation.
- More than 30% of email subscribers purchase products and services from the companies whose emails they receive.
- About 75% of Millennials point to email as their preferred method of business communications.
- About half of all US businesses use some form of email marketing automation.
- On average, consumers who respond to promotional email offers spend almost 140% more than those who respond through other marketing channels.
MAKE IT ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS AND NOT ABOUT YOU
Impressive numbers? They sure are but it’s important to note that they reflect average performance. In other words, some businesses achieve even better results, while others don’t do nearly as well. Across a wide swath of industries (including media companies), the companies that leverage email marketing best practices tend to be the ones most likely to achieve their principal marketing objectives — and add to their bottom line. As with any messaging, remember to offer your customers solutions to their needs.
Test subject lines, images and call-to-action buttons. Determine what resonates best with your customers. Make sure that call-to-action buttons also deliver on your customer’s expectations. For example, if the call-to-action button reads click here for a coupon, the customer should find a coupon. Drive the customer to your intended call-to-action. And always scrub your database to keep it strong. Database maintenance is extremely important and there should be a process in place to make sure this happens. Your email message should be something your customers look forward to receiving. Make your message and call-to-action clear. Doing so shows respect for your customer’s time and you’ll reduce losing the customer along their digital journey.
STEPS TO BUILDING A KILLER EMAIL MARKETING STRATEGY
Every business is different, of course, with different customers, different challenges, and different marketing goals. That said, the companies that achieve optimal success with email marketing tend to share a common set of best practice strategies, including the following four:
1. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Knowing to whom your emails are directed exponentially increases the impact of your emails. That means effectively incorporating customer data to ensure your emails are relevant to their needs. For most, that means segmenting your data based on key customer characteristics. One of the best ways to do that is by creating effective buyer personas.
2. CREATE CLEAR, SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE GOALS
Having specific goals will not only provide a greater sense of strategic direction, but also let you know what success looks like. It’s important to benchmark your email marketing goals against average performance for your industry. You also need to ensure that your goals are reasonable, attainable, and measurable.
3. DEFINE THE NATURE OF YOUR EMAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
There are several types of email marketing campaigns — from campaigns to nurture new leads to those intended to generate more conversions and sales. Your first step is to get a good sense of the many types of email campaigns from which to choose. The second is to decide which of these options is best suited for your specific marketing goal.
Once that exists, then decide which is best for your audience. You should also set up different lists for different types of emails, so customers and prospects can sign up for only the emails that are relevant to them.
4. MEASURE—THEN MEASURE AGAIN
There’s little point in creating an email marketing campaign if you don’t measure results. This could be anything from counting new leads to measuring the change in your open or click-through rate (CTR). By measuring results (with some degree of specificity), you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. This enables the continual improvement of your campaigns.
Talon can help your team effectively leverage email marketing to achieve your key marketing goals and increase profits. We can give you the marketing guidance and advice you need to succeed. Using our programmatic email marketing solutions, your business can target emails to highly specific audience segments based on everything from shopping preferences to demographics, geographics, personal interests, and purchasing history.
Contact Talon to learn how we can help you achieve email marketing success and take your business to the next level.
