Some recent claims…
- Targeted email campaigns which are personalised to subscriber needs – drive 9 times more revenue and deliver 18 times more net profit than broadcast e-mailings (Source: David Daniels. Research Director, Juniper Research)
- In survey, 70% companies ranked Email as excellent or good. 79% for SEO (e-consultancy)
- Best practice should yield a 36% Open Rate and 13% Click Through Rate (Mail Chimp, 2012)
10 Facts about email and why it works
- Goes straight into inbox
- Cost effective
- Can be personalised
- Can nurture prospects (who are not ready to buy yet)
- Can be measured
- Can be tested (A and B samples)
- Fast plus you can control when emails go out
- Enables ongoing engagement
- Works well with 24/7 lives and global locations
- Fits well with multichannel consumption
5 Reasons why companies get email marketing wrong
- By missing key elements (i.e. relevant content, valuable content, personal appeal, Click Through opportunities, compelling subject lines, Calls to Action, visually appealing content etc.)
- By not integrating email marketing into their overall communications efforts
- By failing to ask customers permission to contact them (opt in/ opt out)
- By not testing (open rates, CTR, time of day and week, post click behaviour etc.)
- By not understanding how email contributes to the conversion path
Top Tips to take away
- Set up analytics on your website and prepare your dashboard to track user journeys, devices, goal conversions, bounce rates (Google Analytics)
- Look into cost-effective email programmes (Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor) to automate the process
- Test that your website loads and performs well on a mobile/tablet
- Segment customers across buying stages and look at their behaviour (what they click on, how often and what they have done before) as opposed to pure demographics
- Always spend more time on targeting than on the visual appeal /creativity
- React to customers as soon as they have interacted with you – keep the momentum going and respond to them to show you are there for them
- Always use landing pages on your website to track engagement with your email marketing. You can use different pages for different test samples
- Think relevance i.e. targeted email campaigns which include say special offers/trials for undecided customers, Infographics for visual appeal and short attention span, Case studies/testimonials for reinforcing credentials /right choices, surveys for customer feedback with incentives to respond, general e- newsletters for bonding, showing happy customers and happy staff and informing of new products etc.
All the best,
The brookscomm team
