By EJ McGowan, General Manager of Campaigner
Every April brings Earth Day, a day for us to think (and act) on how we are impacting our planet for future generations.
A popular mantra used around this time of year is, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," and while these are great tips to keep in mind to help better the environment in our everyday lives, they can also apply to email marketing.
Marketers know that most campaigns drain resources (time and money), so, whenever possible, it's beneficial to be creative on where and how to curb costs and maximize effectiveness. There are proven tactics available, fortunately, that can help marketing professionals across industries create and maintain a sustainable email marketing strategy.
Reduce contact numbers to strengthen deliverability rates.
Marketers put in a lot of prep work developing targeted campaigns, so they should make sure they don't let that work go to waste.
By trying to avoid notoriously unresponsive users when building a campaign's contact list, marketers have a better shot at increasing key performance indicators as these users can stall campaign metrics and even be dangerous for deliverability rates in the long-term. For example, Internet service providers (ISPs) can eventually block emails from senders who don't receive many opens after a period of time.
Enterprises should leverage features like engagement scoring to identify and pluck out low-performing recipients, and focus on sending campaigns to engaged users who are likely to open, click or forward their emails. Read more about how to segment un-engaged users and get them to come back.
Reuse offers and calls-to-action (CTAs) that garner high return.
Contacts know what they want, and consequently so do marketers. Brands should conserve the energy spent on coming up with new promotions by looking at which ones worked best in the past and re-offering them at strategic times throughout the year. For instance, if a retailer offered a discount on jewelry or perfume around the holidays and found that it was a big hit, they should consider sending out the same promotion ahead of Valentine's Day. Similarly, if their contacts responded well to a user survey last May, the retailer will want to send out a similar one this May.
By reusing successful offers and CTAs every now and then, marketers will be sure to reach their goals while saving time and effort. An editorial calendar for email marketing may help this initiative as goals can be tracked and campaigns can be scheduled. Learn how to develop an editorial calendar.
Recycle content from email campaigns for social channels.
Social media marketing is a cost-effective strategy that goes hand-in-hand with email marketing, and repurposing content between the two channels is a great way to have a brand's message reach double the audience with half the effort. Marketers will want to make sure that links to social pages are highlighted in emails, so that contacts can easily interact with the brand on another platform. This cross-channel interaction will amplify messages on social media, give marketing content new life and help it reach new targets that are not yet on a brand's contact list. Discover some tips to integrate social and email and accelerate your 'Net success at Website Magazine.
As Earth Day approaches and you see reminders to "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," use this time to consider how you might be able to cut down on email marketing waste and create effective, self-sustaining, email marketing campaigns.
EJ McGowan, general manager of Campaigner, has more than 25 years' experience in the software industry with expertise in building highly available, scalable SaaS-based solutions.
