EMAIL MARKETING

A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BALL GAME

Consider all of the hard work that you've put into creating a brand that your customers will recognize and trust. Your brand is what drives customers to choose your product over your competitors.

Most companies have realized the benefit of building a strong brand. They go to great extents to hire a top agency, design customer interaction policies that reflect the brand and make sure every advertisement and promotion supports the overall brand promise. But while they’re focusing on their offline brand, a lot of companies are ignoring a critical opportunity to build real, long-term brand value – online.

Although many companies see email as a valid medium to express their brand, disappointingly few understand the unique role that email can play in developing that brand. And even fewer realize that their email practices in using email can damage their overall brand just as much as they can enhance it.

THE GROWTH OF EMAIL MARKETING:

Email marketing is quickly becoming the preferred tool of marketing departments in businesses of all sizes. Several recent studies have provided data that reveals the reason for email marketing's popularity:

1. According to a survey conducted by the Direct Marketing Association, more than one half of US companies claim that sales increased as a result of using email marketing. Some details of the study released during recent years included:

» 66 percent of companies indicated that email increased their sales. Medium sized businesses reported the best results with a 59.8 percent increase in sales, while large enterprises saw a 47.1 percent increase in sales, and small companies, a 42.6 percent increase

» 63 percent of respondents said that email marketing was their most effective customer retention tool

» 37 percent said that it was an effective customer acquisition tool

» Of the companies polled, 15 percent of their total online sales came from email-based promotions

Misconceptions Can Be Disappointing:

Just because a campaign produces X amount of money in one month, it does not mean that 4 similar with in a month will produce four times the same results.

This is one of the most common (and one of the most dangerous) conversations that take place in the world of email marketing. Finding the right frequency is very difficult, but it can be done well. Just avoid making decisions on very short term results and never forget that customers will give you the benefit of the doubt just up until the point where they disregard every subsequent email you send them.

Frequency: The goal in setting frequency is to squeeze the maximum benefit out of the minimum number of messages by making each message relevant. The lower the frequency, the more relevant each message must be. Clearly, frequency is not always negative. Some of your recipients may, in fact, like hearing from you regularly. But in general, recipients prefer to receive fewer, rather than more, messages. If you can get the same relevant message to your customer in one email, while it takes your competitor four emails to accomplish the same thing, your Email Marketing success will be higher.

Tip: Consider letting your customers decide how often they want to hear from you. You can do this by setting up preferences that allow your customer to tell you which content they want to receive from you and how often. Giving your customers and recipients the ability to control what they receive and how often is one of the most powerful yet simple ways to dramatically improve your brand value and make Email marketing successful.

Evaluate Your Email Program

The checklist below will help you determine if you are on the right track to having the EBV that will keep your customers coming back for more.

The more statements you agree with, the higher your Email Marketing success.

Checklist 

• I am segmenting my campaigns to deliver the most relevant content possible to my recipients.

• I test my blast campaigns to fine-tune my content, offers and creative so that I increase the overall positive impact of each message.

• I set up preference centers to allow my customers to choose what content they get and how often.

• I email customers only when I have something of value to say to them.

• I leverage my offline brand by consistently using it both in the ‘from’ field and in the email creative.

• When I think about email content, I consider both monetary and non-monetary methods for delivering value to customers.