Econsultancy has published a new report titled The Fundamentals of Email Marketing.
Subscribers can download the report in full. Here, I have picked out just a few slivers of wisdom.
Some of these points are marketing 101, but with so much new technology on the market, practitioners must keep the fundamentals in mind.
It’s worth going right back to the basics of setting SMART objectives. Email is often the get-out-of-jail-free tactic that marketers use when they’re in need of uplift in sales or conversions.
But, as the saying goes, act in haste and repent at your leisure. Marketers should take the time to set objectives for every email that are:
SMART objectives will enable you to define clear KPIs and contact strategies for each email or email programme.
Your contact strategy will set out how often you send emails to your subscribers and in response to what events.
There are many tactics for growing your database of subscribers, but making the most of your owned and earned media to capture email addresses is vital.
Bear in mind the three Vs.
Visibility
Fairly obviously, make sure your email signup and calls to action are conspicuous.
A few potential locations (the report includes further inspiration):
A very visible sign-up prompt from Emerald Street
Value
Why should someone subscribe? Enumerate the benefits of receiving your emails.
Velocity
Make sign-up a speedy affair.
No clicking a button and then being asked for lots of details, simply allow people to enter their email address into a field and then click once.
If you want more information in order to properly target/segment, this can be collected further down the line, even as part of a welcome campaign.
Clear objectives should reveal appropriate metrics to track. Metrics for email can be split into process metrics and output metrics.
Let’s look at a number of them…
Process metrics
Process metrics are trend indictors over time but on their own do not necessairly indicate a successful campaign.
A few examples include (again, there are more in the report):
Output metrics
Output metrics measure business objectives and are a better indicator of campaign and email programme success.
A few choice examples:
Not forgetting open reach and click reach
Open reach and click reach are used to define engagement with email on a subscriber level and take into account customer interaction over a set period of time.
These metrics can be measured over a quarter year, for example, or a longer period depending on the nature of the product lifecycle.
The three Vs of email capture also apply to the unsubscribe.
Visibility
No tiny font. Make sure subscribers can see the unsubscribe option.
Value
Offer unsubscribers an easy-to-use preference centre. This allows subscribers to change their registered address, alter email frequency, or content preferences. That lets them update their data easily.
This preference centre may also offer contact via a different channel e.g. SMS or direct mail.
Velocity
Again, it should be quick and easy to unsubscribe. Mobile optimised, with no signing in needed, and no lengthy two-week wait.