Email Marketing is an accessible and affordable way to reach your audience. Virtually anyone can launch an email campaign with little to no effort. This approach is often taken by many due to the ability to easily deploy an email, with the thought of creating a strategy pushed to the wayside along with the building blocks of a solid Email Marketing Program.
Whether you’ve been in the game for three months or three years, take the time to assess your Email Marketing strategy using the check list below and help put your current Email Marketing efforts into perspective:
1. Identify Your Goals
- Are you looking to generate leads, acquire new customers, or to sell your product?
2. Analyze the Health of Your House List
- How clean is your data?
- What kind of information are you currently collecting? Should/could you be collecting more?
- Could this information be segmented?
- How frequently are you sending to your current list?
3. Identify Your Target Audience
- Put yourself in their shoes and be sure that you are sending a message that answers the “Why Do I care?” question. Be relevant!
4. Identify the Best Mix of Messaging
- Short-Form Editorial (Tip of the Day)
- Long-Form Editorial (Newsletter)
- Short-Form Promotional (Single Product)
- Long-Form Promotional (Multiple Products)
- Transactional (Event-Triggered)
5. Identify the Ideal Frequency
- Capture this preference during the signup process & send accordingly
- Update your send frequency to behavioral data when available
- Don’t have access to user preferences? Look at industry best practices to identify a good starting point
6. Create Benchmarks to Measure Results
- Leverage research resources like Forrester & Marketing Sherpa to guide your success metrics
7. Test, Improve, Test
- Continually test, learn, improve & repeat
- Don’t be afraid to try something new, the results may surprise you!