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Ninety one percent of people with internet connection check their emails daily. That’s why mailing lists have been such a crucial part of online marketing for the last twenty years. To put it simply, it just works.
I’ve found that the key to a successful email campaign is to take advantage of data analysis and automation. If you use the following techniques, you will master email marketing without all the frustration.
Using Data for Email Campaigns
The two fundamental metrics to look at for email campaigns are the open rate and the click-through rate. The open rate is the percentage of people who open the email. A few years ago, internet businesses could get 80% or more. Nowadays, if you can average 20-30%, you are doing very well. The click-through rate is the number of people who not only open the email, but also clicks on one of the links in it. This is the most important metric to watch.
Any good email marketing service has this data analysis included. It doesn’t have to cost you a dime either. MailChimp, Benchmark, and VerticalResponse all offer free services that can handle thousands of emails a month. If your campaign gets too big for the free plan, you can shift over to a paid plan with the same provider.
Start by tracking your open and click-through rates for different kinds of emails. You can use A/B testing to try different placements of links, different headlines, and different email schedules to see how they impact the results. If you respond to the data and use small experiments to learn, you should be able to significantly improve your results.
Automate Your Emails
Automation is the single most important element for convenient email marketing. In this busy world, you need to be able to set your emails to send themselves. You can even set up chains of emails, so that people who do certain things get different responses. The possibilities are boundless and practical.
In my opinion, a good way to start with automation is to set up a series of welcome emails. For example, let’s imagine that you are a sim card manufacturer with an automatic introductory email campaign. Anybody who signs up for your list would immediately enter this campaign. Your first email might say: “Hello and welcome to our mailing list. Here’s a few interesting facts about sim cards. Do you have any questions for us? We’ll respond right away.”
This email would send immediately after someone signs up for the mailing list. If they respond to the email, it would go directly to your inbox, allowing you to personally connect with a new fan. If they don’t, the automated email campaign would send another email a week later. Perhaps this time it would say “This is the second email in our introductory series. We’ve got a great YouTube video about why it’s important to pick a good sim card manufacturer. Check it out at our blog.”
Using email automation is a simple way to improve your relationship with your audience, and it only requires a little bit of time to set up and maintain.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a great way to promote new products, build a better connection with your audience and generate revenue. Analyzing your data and building automated email campaigns based on the results is a surefire way to improve your marketing. If you follow this guide, you will reap the benefits of a powerful email campaign.
Guest Post: David Smith is a blogger and world traveler, with experience in China’s manufacturing industry as well as social media marketing in his hometown of Los Angeles, California.
