Is Your Email Marketing Campaign Really Working?
If you really want to grow your business, you need to ensure you incorporate email marketing into your digital marketing campaign. It may seem pointless; who actually opens these emails anyway? However, you’d actually be surprised about the impact these campaigns can have. If used in the right way – to promote your service, provide interesting content and to offer discounts or free products – emails can make a huge difference to your business.
Would you really be able to resist an email with a two for one offer, or a discount on your next visit? Most people can’t and this is why email marketing can be so effective.
It can also be a good way to re-engage with old clients. They may have forgotten about you, if you worked with them a long time ago and this can be a useful way to open communication, in a subtle way. It is not enough just to develop an email marketing campaign, though; you also need to ensure you track the responses, so you know if it is actually working. It may be that you need to try different tactics to get a better response and without this knowledge, you won’t be able to make these changes. These are some ways to know whether your email marketing is meeting your expectations.
How many subscribers do you have?
Prior to starting your email marketing, you should develop a list of email addresses who might be interested in your content. This may include businesses in your target market, previous and current clients and friends and family. It is important to keep track of how many people are subscribing to receive your newsletter on an ongoing basis or unsubscribing to this service. Your subscribers should continue to grow, as this is the way you will convert them into paying customers. If there are more unsubscribers than subscribers or the number of subscribers is declining, it may be time to take a look at your content and whether you could make some improvements. Digital agencies will be able to assist with this, if you find yourself unsure of what to do.
Are you getting conversions?
The main aim of email marketing campaigns is for the recipient to click through and take some kind of action. For example, if you are offering a specific deal, the email should explain what the recipient needs to do to take advantage of your offer. If there is a low conversion rate, it may be that the email isn’t clear about the action or the recipient needs to jump through hoops to get it. If this is the case, you may need to try and simplify the process or be a bit clearer about what they are expected to do. In some cases, you may just be trying to drive traffic to your website and again, this can be tracked through the analytics of your website. If you are not converting, the email marketing campaign is useless, so take time to understand your conversion rate.
Are recipients opening your emails?
Most of us are inundated with emails on a daily basis, many of which remain unopened, so this is a good indicator of whether your subject line is engaging enough to entice the recipient to want to find out more. If your unique opens is quite low, it may be time to make some changes. You really need to be a bit inventive when it comes to the subject line of your emails. Think about what would make you sit up and take notice. Some ideas include ‘you missed our meeting’ or ‘20% off all products today only.’ Anything that will make the recipient sit up and take notice is good, so be creative!
What is the bounce rate?
If you use invalid emails or misspell addresses, this will increase your bounce rate, which can affect your business. This can look like you are spamming, so you really need to be careful. Always keep track of your bounce rate and make any amendments to your email addresses. It is important to keep a high-quality list of recipients, so your bounce rate is as low as possible. If you don’t keep track, you will continue to send emails to invalid addresses and this might put your account under review. This is something you want to avoid at all costs.
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