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Your 2015 Email Marketing Checklist

 In Email Marketing, Optimization

Ok, its 2015 and you are not sure how to increase your email marketing performance again this year. It’s clearly getting tougher given the competition and ongoing deliverability challenges but email marketing continues to have the highest ROI so it’s all worth it. Whether you’re new to email marketing or a savvy sender, here’s some good 2015 tips on getting more out of your email campaigns.

 

 

1. Are you growing your list?Growing your email list

It’s a given that you’ll always have some people unsubscribe from your emails and that some of your email addresses will become stale. That’s why it’s imperative that you focus on growing your list faster than it erodes. Make sure it’s easy and enticing to subscribe to your email list from every page on your site, blog and Facebook account; use a simple call-to-action on every page and consider offering a promotion if appropriate. Try using a subscription time-delayed pop-up on your website that’s smart enough to know if a customer is already subscribed.

2. Are you maximizing your deliverability?

As people move on with their jobs and interests they may not be reading your emails any more. Make sure you continuously review your hard and soft bounces as well as your complaints to ensure your deliverability is not impacted.  Segment your inactive recipients (ones that did not open or click in i.e. past 12 months) and treat them differently but don’t take them off the list. Avoid spam traps by running a list hygiene at least once a year and only use opt-in email addresses. If you are sending to recipients in Canada make sure you are following the CASL guidelines.

3. Are you sending enough emails?

Businesses are often concerned about sending too many emails, but how many is too many? You should send more relevant emails as long as your unsubscribe or complaint rate doesn’t increase above the baseline you had before you increased the frequency. If you send a monthly newsletter with four articles, try a biweekly with two articles, and then move to weekly. Don’t be concerned that the open rates and click-through percentages are lower; what counts is how many actual people opened, clicked and engaged. If the number is higher and the unsubscribe rate is the same, stay the course. A simple way to improve your performance is to ReMail to non-openers a few days later with a different subject line.

4. Have you refreshed your design?

Does your current design reflect your branding and your new website? Are there clear CTAs? Are there numerous links to your site in every email and on your blog? Today’s more effective designs are simple and crisp; less is more, as long as it’s relevant and engaging. Check your analytics: If many of your readers are reading your emails on a smartphone, consider a mobile-friendly design.

Design For Mobile

5. Have you gone “mobile first?”

By the end of 2013, nearly 50% of emails were read on a smartphone. This is a huge paradigm shift that you must adapt to. You need to evolve your designs to favor the mobile reader. You can either do this with a “mobile first” design that has one template focused on the mobile reader, or with a responsive design that will change the layout of the template based on the size of the reader’s screen.

6. Are you automating your emails?

Automated trigger emails are the most effective strategies to improve ROI. The automation requires a bit of “what-if-then” thinking upfront, but it’s extremely effective and worth the effort. An easy one to start with is a “welcome” email series that introduces your brand to recipients who sign up for emails from your site or social media channels. Once you have a welcome series you can create automated triggered emails based on email behavior (opened, did not opened, clicked….) or web site activity (spent x time on product y page).

7. What are you doing about your abandoners?

In 2014, there was a significant increase in the number of e-commerce sites integrating cart-abandonment emails. These one-to-one emails have proven extremely effective, with typical conversions of 15% to 30%. In 2015, the trend should continue and be augmented with more browser-abandonment emails – automated emails sent to people who browsed a section of your website, with dynamic content related to what they browsed for. If you don’t have an ecommerce site but have lead form abandonment, you can utilize the same technology to convert more leads. Be careful about how aggressively you send these emails – testing is recommended!

8. Do you know your readers?

Today’s readers favor a personalized experience based on relevant content. If your readers are receiving emails from two competing companies, they’ll engage the one that’s most relevant and actionable for them. Think of data elements you can use to personalize their experience – names, demographics, interests, purchase histories, etc. Also consider using a third-party appending resource to learn more about them.

9. Can you send more relevant and personalized content?

Don’t “batch and blast” and treat all your email recipients the same. Segment your recipients based on purchase history (can be automated with most ecommerce sites) and send them relevant offers with product recommendations and promotions that relate to their past purchases. Build a “personal connection” and provide content that’s engaging and informative and carries the same voice across your social media and blogs. Newsletters should be full of case studies, best practices, industry updates and so on. If the CTAs lead to a landing page, make sure the page is “sticky” and concise with an easy-to-fill-out form.

10. Are you social?

If you have a social presence, make sure you have clear “follow us” icons in a consistent place in your email. Consider only highlighting the most important social media icons that are relevant to your business (such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest for B2C and for B2B). Separate the “share” icons from the “follow us” icons.
These tips should start you on the right path for a successful 2015 email marketing strategy.

2015 Email Checklist

Good luck and give us a holler if you need a hand or try out the OM3 email marketing platform for FREE.

 

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