Spring cleaning for your email marketing: 5 pointers to help you improve

Spring often brings a sense of renewal and the need for a clean-up. Why not take this chance to do the same for your marketing by email? Here is a list of 5 things you can do.

1. Capture email addresses as quickly as possible

You dream of having a greater list of contacts? You wish to speak to the people who abandon your conversion process (reservation, purchase…)? Try obtaining email addresses as early on as you possibly can. For example, you can create a two-step process in which the email address is immediately required of your customers during a purchase, reservation online or subscription. If the internet user abandons your process, you will still have their email address and will therefore have a second chance to get in touch them. Inevitably, some will refuse to hand out that information and abandon right away. That is not a problem, as losing them right away will allow you to focus on better qualified potential clients.

2. Play around with your mailing frequency

One of the most common mistakes with emailing is that companies don’t get in touch with their customers regularly. Many companies fear the repercussions of sending out too many emails: massive cancellations of subscription, complaints…However, if you think about it, emails that are relevant for your customers will not bother them. Your communications by email should give your customers a boost, lead them to action and educate them.

Abiding by these rules will allow you to send emails more regularly. For example, past customers will readily accept emails containing weekly promotions or emails relating to similar or complimentary products to those they purchased. A subscriber to your newsletter that prefers receiving marketing information will gladly receive one or two additional emails a month on the same subject.

Don’t be afraid to increase your mailing frequency. Try doubling the frequencies for certain campaigns for a month or two and keep track of the outcome. If necessary, adjust and start over with other campaigns.

3. Adapt your emails to the situation

If you are sending out multiple types of emails, make sure they can be distinguished and that the templates are relevant. Adjust your templates and the sender information to the type of email being sent-out. That way, each type of email will have a unique personality and a greater impact on your readers.

For example, if you have email campaigns to evaluate customer satisfaction after purchase, the email should be simple and graphic elements should be minimized. It should also be sent from customer service or even directly from an individual in the department to make the communication that much more personal. An email containing many more illustrations can be put to better use in promotional mailings and be sent from the marketing department.

Adapt your emails to the situation and your results will only improve.

4. Automation = consistency, efficiency and relevance

When you automate, everyone comes out a winner. You increase productivity, you create a constant and repeatable process and you make sure customers receive the proper messages at the proper time.

To start automating, find a type of email that is sent out manually. For example, a survey on satisfaction after purchase, an up-sell email for customers having purchased a product in a certain category, a birthday email each month…Start by breaking down the type of segment that will be receiving the email, the frequency, the campaign goal…and automate it all.

Many products help you automate your email marketing campaigns. If you do so, your customers as well as your colleagues will be pleased.

5. Major clean-up

What matters most to you: the number of contacts on your list or its efficiency? Would you prefer having 10 000 contacts with an average of 1 000 openings or 3 000 contacts with 1 500 openings? The important factor here is the commitment level of your list.

After all, the objective of email marketing is to use your list in order to generate more sales and not to send out as many emails as you possibly can. It is therefore useless to keep inactive contacts on your list. Delete them immediately!

When you will have done so, you will be able to better evaluate your campaign statistics as they will represent your real engaged group. A campaign that might have seemed unsuccessful could become successful in the light of changes in your lists.

Inactive contacts are also much more likely to report your email as spam and since they don’t respond to your emails, they don’t recognize your messages or your brand. All the more reason to get rid of them.

The definition of an inactive contact varies by industry, but generally, a contact that has not responded to your last three or four emails could be considered inactive.

On that note ends your grand spring cleaning. The only thing left to do is to apply one or two of these changes and see your email marketing campaigns improve.