Companies love to send out emails, they’re cheap, they’re quick and are seen as relatively easy to do. But the fact remains that unless you get the basics right an email campaign can end up being at best time consuming and ineffective at worst damaging to your brand. So here are the Stream:20 top 20 tips for getting your email campaign right, first time.
PLANNING
1. Do not email for email’s sake… define a business proposition for your program
As simple as it sounds, defining the objectives of your email program and managing them through a maintained business proposition is critical.
2. Ensure your email program delivers value at every step
Whether it’s exclusive content, sneak previews, offers only available to email subscribers etc., delivering real value to your subscribers creates on-going engagement, which is at such a premium.
3. Become integral to your business’ broader data strategy… and if it doesn’t exist, create it
As the email program manager, make it your business to muscle in (diplomatically of course!) on anything data. And if the Database Marketing Manager isn’t already your best friend, fix it, quick sticks.
4. Define email campaign management processes from the outset
This might all seem a little keen and “project managery” but efficient processes become imperative when running successful testing programs (see point 17) and when running dynamically personalised email campaigns.
5. Don’t rush your email partner selection process – invest in time and resource
Spend time choosing an email partner that’s right for you.
6. Budget carefully… unforeseen costs are the scourge of the email marketer
And today’s Email marketers in 2011 need to budget for more than send costs. Good email requires investment, so make sure you’re upfront about it from the start.
7. Remember to build in control groups from the outset
Using a control is the only way you’ll know if your email really made a difference or if the recipients would have bought, engaged or acted any way.
8. Don’t let your onsite signup form be an afterthought
Make sure you take the time to think about your data funnel and your on-going data collection strategy.
9. Ensure you’re leveraging all customer touch points to collect data
Now start thinking beyond your site for data collection. Prep your call centres, build signups into your Facebook page, incentivise affiliates, take out ads in your quarterly customer brochure, budget for external lead gen and member get member programs.
WELCOME
10. Use a sequential welcome campaign to educate your customers
Start thinking beyond the welcome message you’re already sending and start being more adventurous. Why not look into a sequential welcome process to further educate your users or create a platform to show them what aspects of your service they have or haven’t used in a defined period of time?
And one final point on Welcoming….
11. Leverage your welcome emails to capture further customer preference data
Looking for more customer data? That (those?) instant welcome email(s) comes into play again.
In the next section we’ll look at relevancy, optimising creative, testing, integrating and reporting.
Here’s the second half of the Stream:20 Top 20 on Email Marketing.
RELEVANCY
12. Relevant content really works; take the time to personalise your emails for better results
Everyone knows that folk expect personalised experiences in their emails but where does that data come from for you to deliver it? Well, naturally, you can start at the email capture point. However, this needn’t be in the form of reams and reams of questions and forms. If you’re looking to deliver gender specific product info in your newsletters, simply use two submit buttons (I’m a bloke/I’m a girl) and collect the data from the subscription action.
13. Be sure to talk to your best customers differently to the rest of your base
Consider how your top customers are different and talk to them appropriately – are they are more sophisticated customer in terms of their product knowledge? Do they buy more in each order or just spend more frequently?
14. Invest in automation and triggers to realise great ROI from your program
Relevancy is not just about content but also timing and reaction. Triggered emails can be a strong driver of ROI so it’s worth investing in automated campaigns. Carefully auditing your site (and other customer touchpoints) will probably bring up a plethora of new ideas.
OPTIMISE CREATIVE
15. Optimise your pre-header and footer real estate at all costs
Regardless of your sector/messaging/type of email, your creative should include a pre-header message with at least a rich text summary message of the email content and linked Call to Actions (CTA) sitting above your entire wireframe. Similarly, your footer can be turned into a prime piece of real estate – design it to reflect your site map for additional click activity.
16. Include a navigation bar in your email that replicates your site
Regular customers will be used to your site and the way it’s laid out. By taking elements of this in to your emails you can maintain the familiarity your customers have built up as well as link them directly to important deep links on the site.
TESTING
17. Test, test and then test again…. and then again…. And again etc etc
Day, time, creative, CTAs, content, tone, wireframe, subject line, frequency… testing is almost limitless and one of email’s key USPs. But unless you have a clear plan it’s also meaningless. Before you start, set clear, attainable, measurable objectives. Don’t rush. And set aside dedicated time to analyse the results.
INTEGRATE
18. Integrate with social media
It is now key to start mapping out your email-social integration strategy today. Really think about what this looks like for your company?
19. Integrate with mobile
Optimising your campaigns and strategy for mobile marketing is simply no longer a consideration, but an absolute necessity.
REPORT
20. Plan to report on the areas that matter to the people who matter
Want buy in from senior management for further channel investment? Stop reporting on opens and clicks. They’re not interested. Instead, work to construct a mature reporting framework around the KPIs they will understand. Revenue, ROI and conversion metrics are the obvious areas to look at first.
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