Email Marketing Software –
An automation to generate leads and ways to make it an effective marketing tool.
Email marketing system or
Email Direct Marketing (hereinafter known as EDM in this article)is a platform
to send email to a collection of leads mainly to communicate or to advertise
product to the intended group of people.
At some point, we will be asked of this
question.
What is a lead?
In the digital marketing, the term lead is
often used by digital marketer as a prospect of sale. This is not a technical
jargon but to someone initially exposing to online marketing his products /
services this doesn’t sound right to him.Lead is not a chemical element in this
article, chemist, sorry another day perhaps.
A lead is a piece of information or any personal
detailsusually an email addressobtained through;
a)
Filling
an e-form in a website;
b)
Subscribing
to monthly email content or;
c)
A
participant to your seminar or webinar (web conferencing).
Are the leads generated
genuinely representing prospects which can be converted into sales? As digital
marketers we are the fronting the line to provide various solutions to answer
YES, but how?
EDM is one of the
effective marketing tool today and still stand the test of thebooming Internet
Technology era. One can assume it is known as a traditional marketing tool now due
to uprising streams of social media marketing.
Research from Experian(http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/07/email-marketing-stats.html)
shows that in every $1 invested in email marketing
initiatives still yields roughly $44.25 return for marketers. Considering the
huge percentage of yield it does show full confidence in EDM.
Although facts show how
familiarity in EDM breeds confidence and comfort in this marketing tool, yet
many are still unaware of how to effectively manage an email campaign let alone
generate revenue. Let’s face it, the market is huge and there are millions of
businesses still reluctant in trying EDM.
List below are 5 important
steps (list is not exhaustive but comprehensive) on how to fully utilize EDM.
Segmentation -
Segmentation -
In every EDM, there is a
basic function to track the leads by filtering grey or white leads. Not
everybody subscribing to your email content are interested in buying the
product. Perhaps they just want the latest news feed or certain contents are
informative for whatever reasons they think is relevant.
The first step to
effective conversion lead into sale is segmenting the types of lead. Grey lead
is what I term as indecisive prospect. They are unsure whether to switch brand
but more likely to be informed of the latest information. White lead is a
typical genuine prospect that will readily submit their feedback and subscribe
to your weekly / monthly email content.
One way to be sure is to
insert 2 different types of subscription link. A link to subscribe for daily /
monthly newsfeed and another link to direct audience to your landing page (your
website).
With the response we get,
we can segment each group of leads and only send relevant information. Quality
communication with your prospects and customers can get you closer to that
group of people actually looking forward to your message.
Personalize your email -
Personalize your email -
This
has been said too often many times but seems a huge neglect.
Recipients will feel connected to the sender if email content has the person’s name acknowledged. It is a serious blunder telling them oh okay we are mass emailing so we can’t type your name.
Recipients will feel connected to the sender if email content has the person’s name acknowledged. It is a serious blunder telling them oh okay we are mass emailing so we can’t type your name.
Most EDM allows personalization and by using it you get to go long way by earning their trust.
Designing your Email Content -
The question that every
digital marketer ask is, what is the ultimate aim of you sending the email
content?
Generally, selling or promoting a product
is the top of the list, followed by brand awareness or promoting seminars. The
central idea is communicating a message to the intended recipients. Relevant
content is king. A few tips on the designing the email content.
Subject line– The subject line should
be short but carry weight of what the content is about. It is an invitation for
someone to open the email. Having said that, the subject line must be
interesting yet not misleading and capital letters should be avoided outright
so it doesn’t look ‘spammy’. So spend some time on creating a fantastic subject
line. There is no one size fits all for a great subject line. What sounds amazing to
one business doesn’t mean it can make it for a different business in different
industry. Hence, creativity is the key.
Image–Something
I read recently, the brain comprehends images 60,000 times faster than text. Words
brief and to the point enough for communication.
Information details– Leaving contact detail
and subscription linkto avoid your email content be deemed as spam by spamming
filter and this leads us to point number 4.
Remember your landing page -
Remember your landing page -
In digital marketing, CTA
is our widely used word simply means ‘Call To Action’. Some emails ultimate aim
is to just drive recipients to their website.
Your email content can be
amazing but it must be resourceful by directing recipients to the landing page,
which is your fantastic website.
Be creative in designing a
landing page. Outsource if you do not have an in-house creative team. Landing
page must be optimized for smartphones, tablets with user-friendly buttons.
Traffic routed to landing page can be captured as a valuable data. Bottom line
here is if your email content is mobile-friendly so should be your
landing page.
Contact us for advice -
Contact us for advice -
Finally, the safest bet to
avoid the trappings in EDM is to contact us for more information. You don’t
want your email newsletter to be junked by the internet service provider without
knowing why.
Happy working ladies and
gentlemen and have a great day.
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