An email campaign is an effective lead generating tool and one that can lead your prospects down the sales funnel into being valued customers. However, there are a few things to bear in mind if you are to maximise success.
Your marketing data is paramount
It is important to keep growing your contact list, but this only works if your data is good quality data. Having a well-researched data list of people who are most likely to be interested in what you do is the most effective use of your time and budget, so when undertaking an email campaign, it pays to bear in mind:
Keep complete data
If all the information you need is not there you and/or your staff will end up spending more time finding out the missing links than getting on with making the business grow! It’s worth spending a little time regularly to ensure you have all the data fields you need. It will pay dividends in the end.
Out-of-date data
Businesses are fluid. People move on to other roles or jobs, companies cease trading or re-locate. Keeping up-to-date records is going to help keep you out of junk folders and avoid wasting your precious marketing budget on a blind alley. Although time-consuming, it is well worth the effort to keep your marketing budget efficient.
Illegal data
If you are using email data that does not have the person’s opt-in for third party marketing, your email campaign could land you in hot water. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is becoming increasingly active in bringing actions against abusers in this respect. Even if the data has been collected from your own clients, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have given their permission for you to market to them!
Irrelevant data
It’s no good trying sell coals to Newcastle, sheep to Yorkshire hill farmers or the latest in flimsy ladies’ underwear to an 89-year-old war veteran with failing eyesight. Think about who you want to target your message to, in order to avoid the potential disaster of being marked as a spammer.
If you are uncertain about the validity of your contact list, it might be worth investing in getting someone to clean your data for you.
Your email is your shop-front…
…so it needs to be representative of who you are and what you do. You wouldn’t leave the CLOSED sign on your shop all day, so in a similar way, make your emails inviting so your potential customer is more likely to open them and explore. Give your email campaign as much help as possible by:
Using an interesting title
No one wants to read a subject line that’s flat-lining. Make it relevant but have a think about what might pique a reader’s interest. Avoid all the Spam words (they all sound hackneyed now anyway) and keep it enticing to the reader and relevant to the content.
Thinking persona
This covers both you, your company and the reader. Put some personality into your content – it will make your email much more engaging. Write your email with the persona of your prospect in mind and write for them.
Segmentation
It is so well worth the time and effort to segment your data into relevant fields. It means you can target your message more effectively, depending on who they are and how far down the sales funnel they are. Not to mention avoiding wasting your budget!
Call to action
It’s so important to let the reader know what the next step should be: – Get in touch, subscribe, ask for more information, follow the link. Let them know what the next step should be before the fold (so they can see it without having to scroll down), and give them a little reward for their interest – a voucher, a valuable blog article, an eBook download or a special offer.
Analytics
It’s so important to read the analytics of the email campaign – it is a mine of information that you can utilise to hone your next email campaign. Use email marketing software, which tends to have analytics built-in (and is often free up to a certain number of addresses). Track who has opened your email followed any links and unsubscribed (and for why).
Follow up
Many a sale has been lost to a competitor in this way. If someone has obviously taken an interest in your email – time for a quick follow up call or a further email with a bonus special offer as a thank you for their interest.
If you follow these rules you will start to see a considerable improvement in the ROI generated from your email campaign.
Feel free to give us a call if you need help organising clean marketing data and an effective email campaign.
