“The money's in the list.”
“You need a list to make money.”
“If you don't have a list, you're leaving money on the table.”
It seems like everyone who's anyone in marketing is talking about the wonders of email. But while your audience can make all the difference to your digital marketing strategy, some people find it hit or miss.
Is there anything you can do to improve your results? Can you tip the scales in your favor?
Here's a list of seven factors to consider when you're planning your email marketing strategy. Just keep reading to find out more.
1. Your Audience
You can download every template and imitate every award-winning email line for line, but there's only one factor that can make or break your campaign:
Your audience.
It's important to target an audience that's excited about buying what you're selling. And after you've done the work of building an email list, you want to make sure that you're pushing the right content to the right crowd.
To that end, you'll want to carefully study both your content and that of the people who have been making a killing from marketing with emails. Why?
Because not everyone will respond the same way to your content. But when your message boils down to “I know you're trying to do X, and here's how we can help you do it.”, you have a much better chance of succeeding with email.
2. Your Timing
They say it takes around six months for a person to know if they're dating someone who's marriage material. But even if you know you've found the one right away, nobody asks for marriage on the first date.
In business and personal relationships, it's important to time the ask. You want the sale, and your prospects also know you're looking for the sale, but it's important to build a certain level of rapport before tossing in that buy button.
Do you have a bunch of readers who have been reading your emails faithfully for years? That list may not mind hearing about your latest book.
Do you have a bunch of new subscribers who still don't know you all that well? You might want to take your time before promoting your products. When you time things right, you can experience the full benefits of email marketing.
3. Your Backup Plan
You've done it. You've written the email to end all emails. Every line is clever and expertly crafted. Every part is done so well that you've had tons of marketers telling you they wish they'd crafted it.
But after loading it up and sending it out, the response just wasn't as strong as you expected it to be. What do you do?
In a perfect world, you have a backup plan. Maybe it's another email sequence. Maybe you have to do a forensic-style audit and find out if there's something wrong with your software.
Regardless, it's worth your while to be ready no matter what.
4. Your Email Marketing Tool
Some email marketing software is better than others. But the reality is that sometimes the best email marketing tools for one type of marketer may not make sense for you. Confused?
Let's say you have two marketers.
Marketer A has been in the game for 20 years, has a massive list, and built a brand around their highly in-demand blog. Marketer B is new, starting with a smaller list, and primarily emailing flash sales.
The bells and whistles that make sense to Marketer A might be more expensive than what would make sense for Marketer B.
You want an email tool that makes sense for your situation and isn't prone to sending out messages that get caught in people's spam filters.
Don't buy the tool that every big-name marketer is promoting. Think very seriously about what features you actually need and whether they make sense for your business.
5. Your Follow up Strategy
No digital marketing strategy is complete without a retargeting strategy from Facebook ads to content marketing on YouTube.
While other marketing methods may have you fiddling around with pixels and tweaking funnels to bring prospects back into the fold, email marketing isn't like that. With emails, follow-up is as simple as sending another email.
But the problem is that different people may not buy for different reasons.
If your prospects clicked but didn't buy, they may need coaxing differently than a prospect who never opened your email at all. In some cases, you may need a Plan A, Plan B, and a Plan C.
But you might be surprised at the results you can generate simply by following up.
6. Your Subject Lines
They say that the purpose of writing copy is to get the prospect to read to the next line. Unlike a commercial where you have time to let people get warmed up, your subject line can often determine whether or not your prospect clicks.
Why?
Because you could be offering the most incredible product your audience will ever use.
It might be the Holy Grail, the Product to End All Products, and the Last Tool They'll Ever Need. But it starts with the subject line.
So what's the fix? You need to have compelling subject lines locked and loaded before your email campaign. This step might take more time to work out, but you'll thank yourself for it when you do.
7. What Success Looks Like
Believe it or not, not every email will be about making the sale. You can send emails for different reasons.
Maybe you're trying to get responses from current subscribers. Maybe you're building trust with the list before debuting your awesome new product.
Your purpose fundamentally changes your standards of success. A high clickthrough rate is a victory in an engagement campaign, while high clicks without conversions would be a failure if you were trying to make a sale.
Here's How You Can Benefit From Having an Email Marketing Strategy
According to Campaign Monitor, marketers get $38 for every $1 spent. With stats like that, you'd think having an email marketing strategy would be a no-brainer, right?
Not necessarily. When you're working out your email marketing strategy, you need to take multiple factors into account.
We've just given you a list of seven factors that can make or break your email marketing efforts. If you work these into your campaign, you'll be well on your way to success.
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