You’ve got mail
In its most basic form, everyone uses email marketing in day-to-day operations – just by replying to customer queries or exchanging supplier pleasantries you are building loyalty, trust and brand awareness. In fact, email has become the lifeblood of business, so much so that no one can remember how things got done before it. Carrier pigeon perhaps?
So what is email marketing?
Have you ever been browsing through your emails and spotted one from your favourite high street brand? Two minutes later and you’ve purchased something you didn’t know you needed at a loyalty discount? Then you, like many, have taken advantage of an email marketing campaign. It is a personalised, mobile and targeted form of direct advertising that is inexpensive and has measurable results… provided it is done well of course.
The secrets of success
Successful campaigns require an ‘opt in’ to avoid being classed as ‘junk’, they understand and speak directly to the audience, offer loyalty rewards or are informative and entertaining. They also provide valuable ‘click conversion rate’ data for the company to hone its future communications. According to Forbes, 41 per cent of marketers base their analytics on email response data. Those who use personalisation in the subject lines experience a 26 per cent rise in the number of opens according to Campaign Monitor. And, according to emailexpert, for every 69p spent on email marketing, the average ROI is £30.77.
Email marketing is a win-win and it stands to reason. More than 247 billion emails are sent every day in the world (says Email Marketing Reports) and 58 per cent of adults say they check their email as practically the first thing they do in the morning, according to Customer Intelligence.
So with these stats in mind, here’s how to get the most from your email marketing:
• personalise it and make sure it is relevant; the recipient should be in no doubt what the benefits are for them
• be creative – not just in the content but in the layout. Don’t forget you will need to catch people’s attention quickly
• Get the timing right for your target audience – when will they be most responsive to your product or service? It could be 9pm on a weekday evening – no problem for a scheduled email campaign
• ensure every element is measurable (click conversion rates are vital) so you can see what isn’t working and what is
• ensure it is flexible so you can change it quickly and easily
• and the most important element? Have a strategy in place. Or you could always ask the experts at 24 fingers to put into action a successful email marketing campaign for you