I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that, if you’re reading this blog post, you’ve already got a marketing plan. Whether you’re a pure marketing firm or a brick-and-mortar retail outlet, chances are you at least send an email blast out once in a while to alert your readers of deals or to push other marketing content.
I’m hoping that your email plan is at least “good.” You’ve mastered the basics of a useful email and have managed to steer mostly clear of the spam filters. But what do you do when you’d like to take your email game up a notch? Here are a few tips.
Set up an analytical framework
What does this mean? Well, instead of firing up your bulk email sender and blasting off one email to your entire subscriber list and hoping for the best, you can track how your emails perform across a broad array of subgroups.
First, invest in some good technology. Whether you choose to use an online bulk mail service or a traditional email client, find a good one and stick with it. I suggest you poke around and do some research into the software that fits your needs.
Second, segment your email list into groups that you assume will respond differently to different emails. If you are a clothing retailer, for example, you’d look to group people by age, gender, and purchasing patterns. Think of ways to get this information when your users opt into your email list.
Third, use your email marketing software to track the read rates and click-through rates of your emails. You’ll want to know how many people are opening their mail, how many go to your site, and, if available, how many make purchases. Good software will do this for you through several equally effectively techniques.
Track your performance
You should have someone on your team whose sole job is to track your email performance religiously. Play with different subject lines, email contents, and email regularities with your different subgroups. Your autoresponder software or email client is only the first step – your analysis of your campaigns effectiveness is what will take it to the next level.
Last, how do you know when you’re doing well? A good benchmark for your email open rate should be around 20%, although the changing nature of email tracking is making this metric more and more unreliable. Look for relative rates. You can always improve, so look to increase your existing rate and see what happens!