The dawn of the digital has keep marketing experts well... busy to put it lightly. New methods of communicating seem to arrive everyday, and sometimes its a struggle just to keep up, but since its beginnings, Email has been one of the worlds favorite ways to keep in touch. It is available virtually all over the globe, and most people have instant inbox access on their cell phones. Because it is a quick, easy, and cheap way to broadcast a message to an audience, email has become a virtual Pandora's box for marketers, filling up inbox's and clogging spam filters everywhere. With all of the ads, spam, and general "bad emailers" recipients have gotten good at using opt outs, spam filters, and bounce backs leaving marketers and business owners all but banished from electronic mailboxes everywhere. Consumers are on guard against the over-communicators, unsolicited, and poorly planned, but that doesn't mean that marketers should abandon the hopes of reasonable response rates on marketing emails, it just means that marketers need to be clever and more effective in planning.
The 5 W's of Effective Email Planning
Just like when writing a paper in school, it is important to consider Who, What, When, Where, and Why to send an email campaign. To "Batch and Blast" or "load and Send" email campaigns simply doesn't work any more, email marketers need to strategize and keep in mind the goals of the company's overall marketing strategy and then utilize email marketing as a means to achieve them.
Who?
Quality is more important than quantity and permission is never optional when sending an email campaign. Not only is using "stealthy" methods of acquiring email addresses frowned upon, but it is bad for branding, company image and will encourage complaints, spam reports and opt outs. A two step opt-in process that requires confirmation before the address is added to the database is a sure way to build an interactive, responsive list. Asking subscribers who have opted in more than a year ago to renew their subscription keeps the list clean and up to date and protects the senders reputation.
What?
Deliver valuable content constantly. Subscribers are easily bored and email competes with new and constantly changing sources of content, so in order to maintain an interactive interested list, vary each emails content from special offers, to survey questions to articles and interesting posts. Survey recipients occasionally to learn their needs and interests and then focus future deployments, subject lines and design elements to better reflect their feedback.
When?
Timing is everything, and it is no different with email. Studies show that redemption rates are typically the highest Wednesday and Thursday mornings, but results always very depending on the list. Send times often effect response rates so it is a good idea to play around with a few and see what gets the highest redemption.
Where?
Where are customers supposed to go to redeem offers, or find follow up information? Make sure that phone lines are active and attended to, links are working and URL's, mailing addresses and reply to emails are correct. Send a friend a test email before the actual campaign to make sure that everything is working properly. One of the best ways to make sure that every email campaign is optimized is to create and consistently utilize an email development and deployment checklist.
Why?
Subscribers often forget that they asked to receive communications from their favorite companies, so it is important to keep offers relevant to the list that is being contacted, and also to include a little blurb near the "opt out" link (essential!) that explains how they got onto the list and why they are being contacted. Besides explaining to customers why they are being contacted, it is also important to determine how success and failure of the campaign will be measured.
