Email marketing success can mean something different to every client. It can mean generating sales, leads, engagement or achieving brand exposure.

When planning an email marketing campaign it’s critical to pinpoint exactly what success means to the client, before doing anything else. This way, you can be confident that both you and the client are heading towards the same goal.

In the following post we look at the different ways you can achieve different goals, the best tools for the job and how to measure success.

Client’s goal: Lead or traffic generation
Measurement of success: Click-through rate
Tools: Focus on segmentation, behavioural targeting and dynamic content

If your client wants leads or traffic then you need to generate click-throughs from your email marketing campaigns. Obviously a click-through means a visitor but it also generates a lead that can be followed-up by a salesperson. There’s a higher chance that the recipient is a qualified lead as they’ve opened and clicked on your email, suggesting they’re interested.

Using email marketing alongside telesales provides direction for the sales team and is a great way to start a conversation. You can see who’s interested in what by looking at your real-time reports and follow-up the click with a timely phone call. By doing this you’ll be contacting recipients at the perfect time – when they’re engaged, interested and receptive to your marketing.

To increase the overall click-through rate make sure the content you’re offering is relevant to the recipient. The best way to do this is to segment and target your emails. Using dynamic content is a great way of delivering different content to recipients based on their interests, behaviour and their purchase history. If you want to maximise your chances of contacting someone at the right time then look at how behavioural targeting could allow you to automate email sends based on people’s interactions and behaviours.

Client’s goal: Revenue
Measurement of success: Conversion rate and total revenue generated
Tools: Focus on your calls-to-action, cart and browsing abandonment campaigns

Email marketing is the best way to turn on the sales tap from online. It allows you to reach out to your potential customers directly to generate sales. Depending on your business model you may look at your conversion rate as your guide of success or you may opt for the total revenue generated by a campaign.

If you’re looking at conversion rate always calculate this from the number of people opening your emails – not how many people you’re sending to. If you start from the open rate then you know that people have seen your email and you can assess whether the content and calls-to-action have done their job.

Remember that sales won’t tell you the whole picture. You may hit the mark with spenders on your database but your sales figure won’t reflect how your database reacted as a whole. Always keep an eye on your click-through and unsubscribe rates to make sure your need to generate sales doesn’t result in losing the interest of people who aren’t yet ready to purchase.

Client’s goal: Engaged database growth or brand exposure
Measurement of success: Open rate or open reach
Tools: Focus on your subject lines, deliverability and single-customer view

In our experience it’s not the size of the database that matters – it’s the engagement you’re getting from it. So when a client tells you they want to grow their database they may actually be better off simply trying to engage more people on their existing one. After all, it’s far easier to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one.

If you want to grow the number of people who are engaged with your marketing then the best tactic is to get more people opening your emails. When it comes to increasing your open rate focus on the basics. Firstly make sure your emails are being delivered – test them and check you’re not ending-up in the junk folder. Always remember to spam check your subject lines.

Gaining a single customer view is the best way to get an overview of all your customers and an insight into their behaviours in one place. By doing this you can create campaigns targeted at specific groups of people such as re-engagement campaigns designed specifically to target lapsed customers or prospects. Re-ignite their interest by reminding them why they showed interest in the first place – incentivise them if you have too.

Once you’ve addressed deliverability then look at your subject lines. Use all the tricks in the book to capture attention with your subject line – personalisation, intrigue, incentives and a sense of urgency. The more people you get to open your emails the more people will see the content.

So there you are – a little guidance on the tools you can use to reach your client’s strategic goal. By using this advice we hope you’ll be able to develop successful strategies, win more pitches and improve your briefing and campaign designs.

Don’t forget that our PureTargeting, PurePromotions and PureIntelligence modules provide you with all tools you’ll need to gain insight, target customers and generate leads.

If you’d like more tips and advice then contact our Agency Team who’ll be happy to help.




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