Saturday, April 07, 2012
Email marketing is about giving people what they want.
This, after all, is the genesis of all successful marketing. Sure, you're in business for a profit. You want a successful enterprise and you want to make a great living. But profit is driven by demand.
Knowing what people want, even in your email campaigns is mission critical.
Getting to the bare-knuckle truth about your email marketing campaigns can be a frightening endeavor. Don't fool yourself by simply looking at open rates to determine whether you deserve a pat on the back. You don't want your accountant lying to you, so why would you want anything but the truth about your marketing efforts?
Marketing intelligence tells you if you're hitting the target.
One of the great things about marketing in the electronic world is the ability to gather intelligence, measure results and avoid wasting peoples' time with stuff they don't want. When your email campaigns deliver things that are useful, interesting or entertaining, it puts you in a favorable light. It makes it more likely that people will do business with you. It takes work. But if you hit the bullseye, you'll be rewarded with more sales.
Learn what you want (or don't want) to know.
Although your Email Service Provider offers reports that show open rates, it can be a little deceiving. A technical "open" includes, for example, your mail being viewed in the preview pane of Outlook. That doesn't mean that your mail was actually read. How do you know that people actually read your newsletter or reviewed your featured products?
Use a combination of click-through rates and Google Analytics. Your ESP will show how many people "clicked through" to links from your email to your website. That gives you a picture of where their interest is high. That, however, can also be deceiving. Clicking the link indicates INITIAL interest, but looking at your Google Analytics report will show if they liked what they saw. You'll find out if they lingered or if they "bounced" out. That's valuable information that helps you make decisions about future content.
Posting articles first on your blog gives you a more accurate picture of what's valuable to your audience. I used to think I was giving my newsletter subscribers a bonus by giving them the first look at my articles, before making them available to the whole world at large on my blog. It's a nice thought, but I've changed my method. I now post to my blog first. So my newsletter only has a snippet of the article. To read the whole thing, people have to click on the link to the blog post.
How does that help me? It shows me how many people actually wanted to read more. It's a little humbling, but I want to know the truth.
How does that help my audience? It forces me to raise my game and provide content that's actually valuable to them.
What do you do with the data?
That's a great question. Here's a suggestion. Maintain a spreadsheet that shows the results of your email campaigns. Show the date, subject line and the key elements of each email. Then show the open rates, the basic click-through rate and which elements were the most popular.
As you create content plans for the next year or next quarter, review that spreadsheet to get some clues about what people want and what people don't want. And if you can tie your email results to buying behavior, you are well on your way to a successful email marketing effort.
Steve Smart works with busy entrepreneurs who want to improve their marketing efforts. He can be reached at srsmart@2Qsolutions.net or 636-699-8772.
Posted by Steve Smart
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