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Is your Email Campaign Having a Mid-Life Crisis?

There are hundreds of ways to communicate in today’s digital society, and with ’email’ turning 40 this year, many companies have let their e-campaigns slip whilst focusing on the more ‘with it’ online channels. However with 60% of companies sending over 500,000 emails each month (Email Marketing Industry Census, 2011), its important to ensure that your email marketing strategy is effective and providing you with positive results.

Weve gone back to basics, and put together our top tips to ensure your Campaigns are attributing to your on-going success:

Targeting:

Most every company in business today will have some form of customer database, whether remotely managed/outsourced or held in-house. The key to any campaign you run is relevancy. Without correct direction, you will receive little response and as a result, little ROI. Segment your database details, group accordingly to your product and service, whether its something simple as geographical location or based on their previous purchase history. Targeting the correct audience will minimise the risk of all future e-communication and interest in your brand hitting the irreparable oblivion of ‘the junk mail’ box.

Permissions and Privacy

It is vital to always ensure you have permission to email – without it, you are essentially invading your customers privacy, causing indelible damage to your companies image giving off a ‘spammy’ and untrustworthy vibe. Don’t cut corners on your e-marketing. Build up contacts organically from existing data held and maximise the use of ‘Opt in’ Forms on your website. Similarly, with an abundance of scams and virus’ hitting inbox’s daily, it is vital that you know your information is protected. Customers need to feel safe in clicking your links and know their data and details aren’t passed to 3rd parties at the drop of a hat. Ultimately, treat your readers with respect and the results will speak for themselves.

Content

First things first – ensure your Subject Line is suitable. This can make or break the best of marketing strategies. Make sure it’s punchy, informative, and a reflection of the contents entirety. Engage your audience with the dangling of the hypothetical carrot, luring them in to see what else you have to say. Ask yourself – what is it you want to achieve with your campaign? What are you offering? Discount codes? Unique Content? Vouchers? Be clear with what results you want to see, and have clear goals in mind.

Don’t be afraid to be on trend with what is happening in the real world. Branding campaigns with topical themes such as Christmas or the Olympics shows relevancy and personality. Remember, people buy from people, not seemingly well mannered bots.

Get Social

Despite Social Media being a great driving force to your site and fantastic tool for increasing readership and subscribers, 57% of marketers don‟t integrate social media and email strategies (and 72% not even measuring the impact their email has had on their Social Media Activity – more on that in a moment!). Always include the basics, Facebook ‘like’ buttons, links to your Twitter page and feed, embedded You Tube content. Think outside the box and get people involved. The biggest complaint met by large scale marketing campaigns is the inability to respond or comment. Social Media covers your bases and immediately gives the power to the consumer and the ability to interact.

Tracking:

So, you have sent out your emails, what next?

Make sure you don’t lack input and interest AFTER your campaign. How many emails were opened? How many bounced back? How many people actually noticed? Without analysing and evaluating your results, how can you tell its success?

Use unique links and content which is easily trackable from your Analytics Tools, and where possible, unique telephone numbers for tracking success and conversion. Getting the ‘bigger picture’ will ensure your future success as an email marketer, compiling data for future use and efficiency and most importantly, increasing your overall profit and ROI.

[image via https://www.ashleybcoombe.com/}

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