Email Marketing
When clients ask, “what is one of the most effective ways to market my business?” one of the first answers that come out of my mouth is email. The reason is simple, when planned properly, email delivers results that in some ways are unmatched by any other interactive methods. The key piece of the statement I just made is “planned properly.”
When working with a client to get email their email program off the ground there are some basic steps that we take which are as follows:
Planning and Discovery – It’s important to have several meetings in the early stages to explore the client’s business. We need to understand the target audience, what the client sells, why customers buy from them, and many other important factors that help us develop a proper email strategy that will be effective. At the conclusion of the planning and discovery process we produce an all-inclusive document that contains all our findings.
Strategy – The information from the discovery report is then leveraged to create a customized email marketing strategy specifically crafted to achieve client business goals. The strategy is goal oriented and focuses on communicating key value propositions to client customers with the ultimate outcome of lead generation and in some cases (ecommerce applications) an actual sale. The strategy is the road map that is created which identifies all the specifics of how, why and when. It becomes the overall foundation that is followed to execute the entire program.
Template Design – The next step is the development of a unique HTML email template that will be used to create the email communications that are sent out according to the editorial calendar, which is created during the strategy process.
Content Development – Typically speaking clients are unable to consistently develop their own content for email communications. We offer full service content development. Using our services ensures message consistency and frequency. The goal is to create well-written content that resonates with the reader. The reader should find enough value in the content to warrant the decision to read it and take desired next steps like clicking through to your website to view a product demo, complete a survey, or simply have a deeper brand experience.
Tracking – Once the emails are sent it’s important to understand how well the program is working. Our email system provides several different metrics that includes the number of emails sent, the number opened, the number that bounced and how many people clicked on links within the email The tracking information is provided on an aggregate level and can also be broken down to an individual level. Tracking is the all-important window to improvement; when you know what works and what doesn’t it becomes much easier to identify opportunities and take advantage of them.
To manage and deliver email we use RhythmMail. It is our own in-house application and it offers huge depth of support. RhythmMail enables ease in managing email lists, building and deploying email communications, tracking results and sending surveys. It also has dynamic content features that enable you to send relevant content to customers based on their interests or their individual demographics. This feature really ups the ante when it comes to marketing to people on a personalized level.
What’s amazing about an email marketing program is that once you get the base foundation in place, maintaining it is low in cost and the benefits are huge. Start communicating with your customers at a level that will enhance their perception of you and your company. Please contact us today for more information.