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Email marketing
As a two way medium that can be personalised and micro-targeted, permission based email marketing is an effective tool for both acquiring and retaining receptive customers - if done well. Done badly and you can have the opposite effect of driving consumers away from your brand. In the current climate of 'consumer as king' it is essential you take due care and consideration in getting your email marketing right. Never fear, help is at hand! The UK IAB Email Council hascompiled a checklist to guide you towards email marketing success in the UK and beyond. Read on to ensure your email marketing campaigns don't end up languishing in the junk mail.
If you come across any unfamiliar words or phrases please use our glossary.
Strategy
Objectives:
What is it that you want to achieve from your email marketing campaign and how will you know what success looks like? It is important to establish this from the start and it helps to integrate them with your overall marketing plan.
Data
The quality of data you have on your customers and how you segment this and target accordingly should be one of the most important considerations before you embark on producing your emails.
Opt-in: Starting at the very basic level you need to know whether your recipients have opted in to receive your emails and whether they have specified what format they prefer to receive the email in (some people cannot view HTML emails)
Targeting: analyse what messages will be relevant to each audience segment and the frequency of contact appropriate
Measurement and optimisation: Make sure you have software in place to monitor the success rates of your email KPIs and thus can optimise your campaigns accordingly
Production
Creative and content:
Whether producing emails in-house or through an email agency, you need to think carefully about the content and look of your email as this significantly impacts on open and click-through rates.
