An essential part of our Inbound Marketing machine is email marketing, through the use of our monthly newsletter, periodic e-blasts to promote our downloadable assets or lead nurturing. As with many marketing tactics, and important step to success is continuing to analyze and improve our current practices.
As part of our personal development goals here at VA Partners, I enrolled in the Email Marketing Certification course offered by HubSpot.
Here are 5 of my biggest takeaways from participating in the course.
1. Benefits of Email as an Owned Platform
There are a number of great benefits that come with email marketing especially because the channel is owned by your business. You have control over the content and the design. Unlike social media or search where algorithms can severely change your successes. Because it is an owned channel, it is also permission based which give hold great potential in creating a direct and personal communication path between you and your prospects or clients.
2. The Importance of Mobile
The success of an email campaign can be in part due to whether or not your email is mobile-friendly. A couple of staggering stats that were mentioned in the course were that 81% of people state that checking email is the primary function of their phone (over actually making calls) and that 54% of all emails are opened on mobile. That being said, you’ll have to make sure your content can be easily read on mobile, that your calls to action can be clicked on and that there is enough white space to cover the screen. As a test, you may want to try opening your email on a number of mobile devices before sending it off.
3. Managing Your Contacts
As you email list grows it can be easy to lump all of your leads into one list. However, there is a lot you can do when it comes to segmenting your contacts. You can segment your contacts according to their stage in the buyer’s journey, when they opted in, what products or services their interested in, their previous behaviour on your website, or according to their buyer’s persona. Segmenting your list can allow for a more personalized email experience for the receiver. Once you’ve segmented your list, it’s also equally important to continue to refine your leads and ensure they are in the right list. For example, you’ll may want to move your leads into customers or to a different product/service.
4. Email as a Flexible Marketing Tactic
Email can be used for many reasons. This can include providing a monthly newsletter, customer support, or promoting new products or services. It can be easy for a business to get stuck in using email marketing for one purpose however, it might be worthwhile to see if there are any gaps or other areas that email can be used. Think about how emails can be used for customers versus leads. What are ways email can be customized for warm leads as opposed to cold? How about someone who just learned about you versus a long time customer? There is a lot of potential in email marketing.
5. Testing With Email Marketing
A final, but important stage in email marketing is the analytics. Compare your email marketing metrics to your initial goals to continue to optimize your email strategy. A huge benefit with email marking is the ability to run tests. Make sure your tests reach enough people, and that you get consistent results. This will help you get more accurate findings. It’s important to continue to take the time to see what works and what doesn’t.
If you’re thinking about getting started with inbound marketing, but not sure where to begin, contact us. For more tips and news on sales and marketing follow us on Twitter.
