I’ve been reading a lot lately about email marketing and I’ve heard some even say it’s old fashioned, that it’s dead, culminating with the question ‘does email marketing still work?’
I’d have to disagree. Instead, what I think is dead is sending people mindless information that doesn’t relate to them at all – as we know, this is called segmenting your message.
I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying ‘marketing is all about sending someone the right information, at the right time, through the right channel.’ Well, that still rings true for our email inboxes, it’s just a more personal medium and one that has to be targeted, otherwise information is considered as spam.
Don’t be a lazy marketer – be relevant!
On average people receive up to 140 emails per day, and over half of them get deleted. There are many arguments for being relevant. You can fall in to the trap of sending something out just to say the task is complete, without thinking through how effective it will be.
How do you keep your content relevant?
- Think about who will be on the receiving end. This will ensure your data segmentation is spot on.
- Why are you sending it to them or why should they care? This will help with your core messages and imagery.
- Start with your data – many of us are too busy to update our databases or follow up bounced email addresses, but do you realise how rapidly your database integrity decreases if it’s not maintained? I’m sure you would agree there’s no point in sending out information if no one is receiving it. There are many updating services for your data or if your staff are educated, they’ll be able to maintain it for you.
- Know how to segment your data. How are you going to send it to the right people if you can’t segment the data the way you need to? Often we collect data we don’t use and don’t collect the data we need.
- When is the best time to send it? Are the people you are sending it to away from their desk from most of the day and check their emails at night? It’s never a good idea to send something on a Friday night, it’s likely to get caught up in people’s inboxes on Monday morning. Think about their daily movements and plan accordingly. You can also see the open rates of campaigns when you use email management software.
- TEST and measure. Remember to test your emails, test the subject line, imagery and messaging. Make sure you also spam test your emails, they might look good, but there’s no point if they get caught in spam filters and review how effective the campaign has been.
What kind of content do I send?
The best content comes from education and what your audience is interested in. I can guarantee that this will be far more effective over a SELL, SELL, SELL messaging that people won’t want to read, will probably find more offensive and are likely to unsubscribe.
There are many articles on Content Marketing out there, read-up and use it!
What else can email marketing be used for?
While it’s good to send your targeted messages out to your email database, you can also get your content out there through social media (Google+ is especially good for building authority), updating your website’s blog and even forwarding to PR contacts. You might as well maximise your efforts.
Why?
Sending and sharing helpful and educational content that’s targeted will build trust with your audience. Once you build trust, people are more likely to buy from you.
If you try all of this and still think it doesn’t work, email me an example and we’ll see how we can help.
Does email marketing still work for you?
Or looking for help if it doesn’t? Contact us direct, we’re happy to help.