Email marketing is an extremely cost effective, immediate and powerful digital channel to strengthen brands, build loyalty, engage in customer communications and generate sales.

So, whilst Social Media is the current buzz term and growth area of Digital Marketing, organisations, especially those with an eCommerce presence, should continue to focus on more established channels such as SEM and Email Marketing. A recent UK study found that 36% of consumers said that receiving an email prompts them to make an online purchase. Match this with the finding that 61% of consumers used search engines to help them in their product research decisions leading up to purchase, and you have a very powerful marketing strategy.

Within this post, I’m going to focus on some specific Email Marketing tips to make your campaign more effective.

Once you decide to undertake an Email Marketing campaign, there are a number of areas you should focus on:

Strategy development
Database management
Creative development
Campaign analysis

1. Strategy Development

At the very outset you should be discussing and developing the goals and objectives of your Email Marketing campaign. Typically, the strategies should be developed to run over a six to 12 month period, and comprise communications such as:

Promotions – Limited/Special offers, Last minute deals, Seasonal offers, etc.
Newsletters – Build loyalty & maintain long term relationships with clients by delivering worthwhile content & drive sales over time. Includes Company/Product News, Case studies, Hints & tips, Advice, Surveys, Polls
Product Releases & Updates on Services
Event Management – Send invitations & register for an event online
Additional objectives – Internal Newsletters, After Sales Emails, Personal Greetings

2. Database Management

You can build your database in a number of ways. Website subscriptions is the easiest and most obvious choice. All you need is a field requesting visitors to join, and you’re away. The other way is through other digital marketing techniques, such as utilising third party email databases, display banners and search marketing. There is obviously some running costs involved in these methods, but they can be productive in building highly targeted databases, and are often worth the investment.

For those client simple using a website subscription method, the greater range of data collected on sign up, the greater the potential for targeting and segmentation. For example:

Contact information
Demographic information
Personal interests
Purchase history

3. Creative Development

Without doubt, and simply put, you should be creating email templates that engage with your audience, drive click through rates and are fully compatible with all current email clients.

4. Campaign Analysis

All email marketing activity should be fully tracked through to conversion, to provide complete accountability on performance and allow for ongoing optimisation. This allows you to measure ROI, track responses and update customer profiles to deliver more specific and relevant information in future campaigns.

The metrics you track can differ to your desire, but should include:

Emails delivered
Emails opened – including who opened them, and the City/State they’re in
Emails bounced – how many and why they bounced
Un-subscribes
Click though rates
Actual links clicked – the frequency and who clicked them
Send to a friend percentage – how many thought the email was worthy of passing along
Recipients who edited their profiles/updated their information

Good luck.

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