Digital Marketing Strategy: Building An Effective Email Marketing Plan
Email marketing is the act of transmitting a commercial message, usually to an established or potential customer with email. In its most broad sense, email marketing encompasses using email to transmit advertisements, solicit donations or request more business. While the email marketing industry has grown dramatically over the years and is a highly competitive global market, many marketers remain unfamiliar with the fundamental elements of email marketing and its key benefits. However, email marketing is by far one of the most cost effective and efficient marketing channels available today. In fact, it accounts for a sizeable percentage of total marketing spend in the United States.
With so much competition from hundreds of thousands of different marketers pummeling the market, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. Without some kind of plan to ensure that your marketing strategy is consistently timely, it can be difficult to convert leads into customers or vice versa. A solid email marketing strategy will not only provide your company with leads that are interested in your products or services but will also help to grow your brand and reputation by creating a positive image in the customer's mind. When you begin to use email marketing as part of your overall online marketing strategy, it is important to first take into account some basic principles of email marketing and then customize it to suit your specific needs. By doing this, you will be able to leverage email marketing to your advantage and see positive results in a very short amount of time.
The first step in creating the right email marketing strategy for your particular business or product is to define your target audience. This means knowing who your audience is and how they are going to react to your emails. For instance, if you are a dentist and are looking to advertise your services via email, it would make sense to build an email list consisting of individuals who have received dental care at some point in their lives.
Once you have defined your target audience, the next step in your campaign is to determine what type of content to present in your emails. There are two main options available when it comes to content for your campaign: traditional emails that are sent out to people's email addresses or internet advertising, also known as email marketing through social media. Most experts recommend that internet advertising be used to build brand recognition for your business rather than email marketing because it provides more long-term benefits to your company. However, there are some instances where traditional email marketing would be more effective. For example, a campaign to market your business would be more successful if it included a call to action or a demonstration video within the email.
After determining the type of content to include in your email marketing strategy, it is time to come up with a short, but catchy title for each of your campaigns. Keep in mind, however, that even though a catchy title might get your campaign passed off as spam, it is a very vital component of any email marketing strategy. Consumers hate having to repeatedly see the same image, text or photograph in an email marketing campaign and will likely click away from the email if it is repeated often. Make sure your titles include one or two unique phrases that set them apart from all others that may show up in an email marketing campaign. Some titles to consider using include: 'First Email for X' or'Newsletter for X' to name just two examples.
One of the most overlooked components of email marketing for small businesses is the use of social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. These social media accounts can provide the basis for what can be called a viral marketing strategy. The idea here is that if you send out emails that are focused on offering something of value, people will spread the news about your company through the various social media accounts they have created, with the possible help of their friends who have signed up to the social media accounts as well.
Last, but not least, is the mailchimp utility. This is a very commonly used utility that can be used for a wide range of reasons. For instance, you can use the mailchimp service to send out bulk emails and track the response rate of those emails through optin forms, the tracking statistics and the ability to split test any mailing list.
This article has discussed the four primary components that comprise an effective email marketing strategy. Specifically, we discussed creating a very targeted email marketing campaign, tracking the response rate of the campaign and how the campaign can be split tested. It was also mentioned briefly how a very effective digital marketing strategy is one that uses various types of marketing tools. Finally, it was discussed how a common service used by many companies is the mailchimp application. By now, you should be able to understand how these four components can be combined to create a solid email marketing strategy. When your marketing plan and your goals for the campaign became clear, it can provide a foundation on which your marketing strategy can be built and expanded upon to reach your business marketing goals.
