Why an Email Marketing Strategy is Important for your Email Campaign

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Email campaigns are the bedrock of any email marketing effort. Companies know how valuable email as a platform is to their marketing goals. Many businesses engage in email campaigns and other forms of email marketing targeted at their customers to increase revenue and build relationships.

After learning email marketing, launching an email campaign is the next logical step. But your email campaigns may not be performing well as promised in the email marketing guide you read. This could be because of an ineffective email marketing strategy. Email campaigns may be the bedrock of your email marketing efforts but an email marketing strategy is the chisel that shapes that rock into a shape that is effective and pleasing to your customers.

Let’s delve into what email marketing strategy is and how you can create an effective one for your business.

An email marketing strategy is a collection of tactics you use to achieve your email marketing goals. Think of your email marketing strategy as a battle plan that informs your decisions on what to do and how to do it so you can achieve your marketing goals.

Your email marketing strategy is a plan with actionable steps that your business can use to communicate better with prospective and repeat customers, increase revenue and accomplish other goals you have identified.

An email marketing strategy is an indispensable part of your overall email marketing effort regardless of whether your business is focusing on b2c or b2b email marketing. A strategy works for both types of email marketing. Here are great benefits of having a strategy:

• Having an email strategy laid out allows you to plan your next campaigns ahead of time. You can plan when to send regular sales emails, newsletters and even time-sensitive emails like coupons or special offers.
• An email marketing strategy allows you to collaborate better with other aspects of your business. A well laid out plan ensures that everyone knows the role they play in your email campaigns. For example, your content creator can plan their articles and SEO keywords to tie into your campaign. Even your social media manager can promote the campaign your business is running.
• At the heart of every email strategy is your marketing goals. Having these goals gives you a sense of direction when starting an email campaign. And allows you to assess the progress of your campaign.
• With an email marketing strategy on your side, you can choose the best approach to reach your goals. For example, you can start a survey to find out why people are unsubscribing from your list.

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Creating an email strategy is easy but creating an effective email marketing strategy can be difficult. Here is a step-by-step procedure for you to follow:

Set marketing goals

Like previously stated, marketing goals are at the heart of every email strategy. They determine the plan and actions you take to accomplish them. How can you start sending emails willy-nilly without a purpose?

Your goals are your purpose. And they may include:

• Build better customer relationships
• Increase revenue
• Raise brand awareness etc.  

All emails you send should put you on the path to achieving those goals.

Pick an email marketing platform

An email marketing software is your gateway to email marketing. In this guide, we break down everything there is to know about them and how to pick one.

Identify your target audience

Building your email list is the next important step. But before you do that, you have to identify the target customer base that your business caters to. Say your company sells art supplies, your target customers will be school teachers and parents with school-aged children. Identify the people your business serves and you will know who exactly to target in your list building efforts.

Build your email list

You can build your list through your website by offering incentives to get people to subscribe to your newsletter and updates. You can also opt for email list brokering which we offer here at B2BDataGuy.

Segment your email list

Dividing your email list, whether b2c or b2b email list, into different groups is important. Segmenting based on age, gender, location, occupation etc. lets you send emails to people who find those messages highly relevant. According to HubSpot, marketers who segmented their list had better click-through rates than marketers who sent general emails. Segmenting your list enables you to send targeted emails and get better results.

Decide on what kinds of emails to send and create a schedule

There are different emails you can send to your subscribers. Different emails work in different situations. The emails you send to a customer who has items in their cart but hasn’t made a purchase is different from that which you send to a new subscriber. The kind of email you wish to send would depend on the aim of the campaign you’re running.

Also, you have to work out the best time to send emails to your subscribers. This is where A/B testing comes in. Trying out different times until you find your sweet spot will get more subscribers opening your emails.

Personalize your emails

Personalising your emails by adding a name will get you 6 times your regular transaction rate according to Experian. An email that reads “Dear Anna” will be better received than one that says “Dear Customer” or worse, Dear (insert name here). Always ask for names when people subscribe. Use a real reply to email and email signature to add more personalisation to the emails you send to customers.

Optimize your emails for mobile

Phones are a big part of most people’s lives. Mobile phones perform virtually all kinds of tasks for people. It is no surprise that Litmus reports that more people are checking their emails on mobiles than desktops. Creating emails that work for both mobile and desktop is important. An email doesn’t fit on mobile screens might annoy your subscribers and may lead to many unsubscribing.

Responsive emails that work for both desktop and mobile devices are your best bet. Luckily, most email marketing platforms offer responsive design in their features. Remember to keep your subject line short and your Call to Action (CTA) buttons large.

Test everything

It is obvious you have to create killer copy for your emails. But what isn’t obvious is the amount of testing that goes into each part of an email. A/B testing allows you to send different versions of the same emails to a select group of users to gauge its performance.

You test long emails with a lot of content against short emails that lead people to your website. You test plain text versus HTML. Even the address in the “from” field must be tested.

Wrapping Up

As email marketing trends evolve, so should your email marketing strategy. Testing everything to get the best option should be a core part of your strategy as it enables you to refine your marketing strategy. And always remember, email analytics can help direct your testing efforts.