Email marketing

In our last class and final week of our digital marketing course we are revising all the great learning the students have done over the past couple of months. There are a number of key areas to focus on in getting to grips with Digital Marketing. The modules we looked at were Customer Analysis, Social Media, Mobile Marketing, SEO, Google Analytics and Email Marketing. Here we’re going to look back at some of these and explain their uses and why they are important.

To begin with it is useful to provide a framework which allows companies make decisions and manage their digital marketing activity. We looked at the SOSTAC planning model. This process goes through 4 basic questions that businesses need to ask themselves – Where are we now? or Situational Analysis. Where do we want to be in the future? Goal setting. How do we get there? Develop strategies. How can we be sure we arrive? Implementation, measurement and control.

For Digital marketing this means a major focus on your customers, their online activity, their media consumption and buying habits, their use of digital technology and creating an in-depth profile of your customer or a persona analysis.

The explosion and adoption by consumers of social media platforms has led to a whole new media channel for business to engage and communicate with their customers. Understanding the way these platforms are used is critical to achieving successful outcomes. Your brand needs to become part of the conversation with messages that encourage interaction and are useful to your customer. Social media is not a sales platform but rather a place where you can listen and add value to your customer’s experience with your brand.

73% of consumers use their smartphones while shopping. This has led to a whole new purchasing pattern for your customer and one where the store has become more about experience and less about price and product benefits. This is because customers will shop around online while they are in your store. Geo location, QR codes, SMS, augmented reality and apps are just some of the technological aids that businesses can use to enhance their customer experience.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation ensures that your website is visible to your customers. Keywords, Link building and content are basic elements to pay attention to. Visual elements such as photos and videos and geo location are important to both PC and mobile search.

The digital space is interactive and always on. Measurement tools such as Google Analytics allows you to calculate your ROI and make amendments to your campaigns on an ongoing basis. Site traffic, conversions, referrals and sources of traffic are all measurable through these reports. Ensure that you have well-defined, measurable objectives and defined action outcomes from this valuable information.

Email marketing is probably the oldest of the digital tools but one that remains a core part of most businesses’ digital campaigns. Its ability to deliver personalised messaging and use as a retargeting tool will ensure that email stays in the digital mix. Combining Social Media and email strategies has proven to be a powerful mix in engaging and converting customers.

With all this focus on online activity it is important to remember that we live in a real world. While the digital space is exciting, innovating and offers many opportunities remember to begin with your customer and match their needs with the benefits and value of your products and services in the places where they consume their media.

Thank you for following the students and me over this 10 week course. I’ll be back in January with a whole new class and course. See you then!

Email marketing can often be seen as the poor relation in the Digital marketing toolbox. Yet companies still believe it to be very effective. Today we’re going to look at the five steps in implementing an email marketing campaign.

Step 1: Define Objectives

Because of its personal nature email is effective at delivering objectives like generating leads, renewing relationships with clients, introducing offers or enhancing brand reputation. Set down specific, timed and realistic objectives.

Step 2: Manage Lists

Creating, updating and managing lists is an ongoing task. To generate a list collect emails from sign-ups, or downloadable documents on your website. If you have a store request email information by running a competition and wherever there is a networking opportunity be sure to get people’s business cards. Set up a system that ensures your data does not go out of date and is relevant to your message. Segment your lists by geography, interest or business and customer type.

Step 3: Produce compelling content and offers

The decision to open or delete an email is made by how compelling the subject line is. Give some thought to developing a clear, attention grabbing subject line. Research shows that if the email is sent by an actual person rather than a company name the open rate is higher. Provide valuable and relevant content to your email recipients with new product news, product offers or competitions. Make sure there is an obvious and focused Call-to-Action and include social sharing button links. Always include an unsubscribe link but here give your customer an option to come back at a later stage.

Step 4: Schedule your emails

The time of day and the number of emails you send to your customers will differ from industry to industry. Only send emails when you have something to say as cluttering up inboxes to generate awareness can have a negative effect and be frustrating for the recipient. Sending Emails early in the morning has proven to be the best time for open rates.

Step 5: Measure Results

A good email software provider will have the relevant measurement reports for your email campaign. When sending the email choose the A/B subject line test option. This allows you to send two different subject lines to a sample list, the most effective line then is sent to the total subscribers list. Look at open rates but more importantly the Click Through Rate and what content is being clicked on. Be sure to track the measurements so you can get a picture of the type of emails and content that are more successful than others.

More and more emails are opened through mobile. Watch this in your metrics and check how your emails render on both mobile and tablet.

Next week is the last week of the course. We will be doing a review of the whole course so be sure to check in for a revision update.

Maeve Nunan

Digital Marketing Educator

Week 9 – Five Steps to Email Marketing