We Can Help You Leverage Email Marketing – Offering Some Of the Best Returns Available Online… But Privacy Issues Require Care

In Brief:

  • An email list of your customers is the most powerful marketing asset you have.
  • Privacy regulations must be considered and protections deployed properly.
  • Set up email marketing analytics so attribution is clear and measurable.
  • Email lists are doubly-useful in customer-match marketing on PPC and social media.

Analytics, Goals and Attribution

Are you trying to motivate purchases, reinforce your brand, bring visitors back to visit your site, store or office, cue the reading of an article, prompt requests for more information, increase attendance for an event, obtain donations, appointments, or sign ups for a service?

As your goals become clear, you’ll want to define the technical aspects of attribution. Are you setting up the links on your email so you can measure click through rate? And once they arrive at your landing pages, can you attribute further actions to the email campaign?

Split Testing

As your list grows, most businesses should begin split testing their messages. This means sending a few versions of subject line and call to action to segments of their audience, and then measuring the performance. Once known, the higher performing versions can be sent to the remainder of the list with confidence.

Audience Definition

Are you targeting a segment of your customer base or your entire house list? What are the needs, wants, and interests of those on your list? What is important to them? What will motivate them to take action

Buyer Journey and Drip Campaigns

Engage your recipients and deliver on their needs. Use what you know about recipients to determine how, and in what order, to describe and illustrate the benefits of your offer. As buyers move through the purchase funnel, are you providing the information they need so you can remain relevant to them?

Timing

When is your audience most likely to open and read your message? While audiences vary, we have found that mid-day delivery is better than mornings or evenings. Choosing the right day of the week is also important. Often Tuesday and Wednesday achieve better results than the beginning or the end of the week. Your audience may be different, so do some testing to determine the timing that is right for you.

Remarketing / Retargeting

Can you integrate your email marketing program with retargeting or remarketing? How can you leverage your in-house list with customer-match and look-alike-audiences on PPC and Social media?

Customers expect a fast response to emails, in particular replies to a campaign.  You must make sure staff is available to field questions that result.

Opt-In and Permission:

  • Are you using a good permission policy? Make sure you have a preexisting business relationship and/or affirmative consent.
  • Preexisting business relationship – The recipient of your email has made a purchase, requested information, responded to a questionnaire or a survey, or had offline contact with you.
  • Affirmative consent – The recipient of your email has been clearly and fully notified of the collection and use of his email address and has consented prior to such collection and use. This is often called affirmative consent.

Subject Lines and Format:

  • Does your “From” line include your company name or brand?
  • Is your “Subject” line the right length? (5-8 words, 40 characters including spaces)
  • Does your “Subject” line incorporate a specific benefit?
  • Does your “Subject” line include your brand (if for some reason your “From” line does not)?
  • Does your “Subject” line create a sense of urgency?

Email Content and Call To Action

  • Is your email personalized with the recipient’s first name, last name or both, if appropriate?
  • Does the content include a “tl;dr” paragraph for skimmers?
  • Is the main email copy clear and concise?
  • Does it read well on a mobile phone?
  • Does it contain a strong call-to-action that connects to the need of the buyer at that moment?
  • Does it focus on benefits?

Important Details:

  • Are you prepared to handle inbound email responses and questions resulting from your outbound email campaigns? Follow-through is as important as the first contact. Do not miss the opportunity to open a two-way dialogue with these interested recipients.
  • Have you used appropriate graphics while also making good use of white space?
  • Have you proofread the “From” line, “Subject” line and email copy thoroughly?
  • Have you checked all links to be sure they work properly?
  • Have you previewed and sent yourself a test in both HTML, and text?

CAN-SPAM Compliance:

  • Does your email include a way for recipients to unsubscribe, e.g. an unsubscribe/opt-out link and/or instructions?
  • Are you prepared to handle all unsubscribe requests within 10 days of the request?
  • If you use multiple email products, or have multiple databases from which you send emails, are you prepared to process all unsubscribe requests across all lists?
  • Are you using good mailing practices? Have you been honest and truthful?
  • Have you used a legitimate header?
  • Have you used a valid from address?
  • Is your “Subject” line straightforward, vs. misleading?
  • Is your physical address included in your email campaign?

When you can answer “yes” to these questions, you are ready to hit the send button and maximize your success!

Email marketing is by far the highest converting asset in the digital marketing arsenal and you should focus a great deal of energy on developing a large customer list.

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