email marketing strategy
expanding your email list, increasing
deliverability, and the art of segmentation
the impact of email marketing ...2
expanding your email recipient list ...3
increasing your email deliverability ...5
the art of email list segmentation ...7
inbound marketing integration ...8
conclusion ...9
how we can help ...10
the impact of email marketing
Email marketing will always have a presence in digital communication. Although some may feel that email marketing has passed its prime, recent industry predictions indicate otherwise. Forrester Research forecasts that investment in email marketing will grow to reach nearly $2 billion in 2014.1 With spending on email marketing on the rise, it is now more important than ever for your business to carry out successful email marketing campaigns.
media junction® recognizes the importance of email marketing as part of your business’ inbound marketing strategy. We focus on persona-based segmentation of your customers and prospects such that we are able to design effective, targeted email marketing campaigns.
1 US Interactive Marketing Forecast By Industry 2011 to 2016, Forrester Research
…investment in email
marketing will grow to reach
expanding your email recipient list
quality over quantity
It’s not the number of emails you send out that matters; it’s the quality of your recipient list. Maintaining an email list is an ongoing process that requires strategy and focus. If you send 100,000 emails to the wrong people—prospects who aren’t ready to do business—then you will see no return on your investment.
effectively expanding your
email list is about technique:
Provide valuable and relevant infor-mation through inbound marketing Blog regularly with engaging,
SEO-optimized content to advertise in your emails
Co-host marketing events with non-competitors and draw from each other’s lists
If you send 100,000 emails
to the wrong people…
you will see no return on
expanding your email recipient list
(cont.)
reduce unsubscribes
Expand your list by reducing the number of people who unsubscribe. People often unsubscribe from email lists if they are receiving too many emails or if the content is not relevant. Offer fewer or more targeted emails when a customer attempts to unsubscribe. Conduct occasional frequency surveys and focus on segmenting your email list for more effective targeting.
keep it white-hat
Avoid buying third-party email lists as a means of building your own. There are inherent risks with acquiring customer data this way: emails being blacklisted or marked as spam, a general lack of engagement from prospects who didn’t sign up, and a weakening of your overall inbound marketing strategy.
increasing your email deliverability
a few simple guidelines to help
maximize deliverability
make no assumptions
Hitting the send button doesn’t guarantee your email will reach its destination. Inevitably, your email marketing efforts will sometimes fall on deaf ears; emails will be rejected by spam filters, blocked by firewalls, or simply not reach their intended target for any number of reasons.
prime your IP address
People who intentionally send spam emails generally do so by sending mass amounts of email from a single IP and then switching to another before the IP is blacklisted. Slowly build up the amount of emails you are sending out rather than immediately inundating your list members with emails right off the bat. If you send too many emails too fast, it may be interpreted as spammer activities and your IP may be blacklisted.
2 Return Path Reputation and Complaints Guide 09/2012, Return Path
keep email lists clean
In approximately 83% of cases, email non-delivery is the result of a poor sender reputation, as defined by your Sender Score.2 Sender Score is a free email sender reputation assessment tool for determining your sender rating. Similarly to a credit score, Sender Scores change over time, and must be reassessed accordingly.
increasing your email deliverability
(cont.)
To summarize: Maintain a “clean” list, regularly assess the viability of your contacts, and slowly build up your sending rates to maximize the deliverability of your emails.
Do all recipients on your list have a prior relationship with your business?
If not, go ahead and remove them, they are likely to mark your emails as spam and damage your sender reputation.
Do you have an unsubscribe list?
For legal reasons, recipients must have the choice to permanently opt-out of your emails.
Was any portion of your list acquired from a third-party?
Purchasing email lists from third-party providers greatly increases your chances of your emails being earmarked as spam.
Are your recipients expecting emails from you?
Expectant recipients are much more likely to engage than people who are caught off guard.
Have you emailed these contacts within the last 12 months?
Contacts who haven’t heard from you in a while are much more likely to be surprised or annoyed by your emails and mark them as spam.
the art of email list segmentation
stay relevant
Relevancy is essential for the success of your email marketing campaigns. Segmenting your email list into groups based on common characteristics is an effective technique for offering the right content to the right people.
Users may be segmented based on any number of characteristics:
geographic location
Consider how the customer’s physical location influences his/her buying decision
Examples: invitations to special events, area-specific sales events, local customers
industry / role (B2B)
Consider the individual’s role in a company and how it affects their goals/concerns
Examples: CEO, marketer, IT professionals
interest-based
Consider how users have been influenced by past conversion events
Examples: CEO, marketer, IT professionals
behavior-based
Consider where the prospect is at in the sales funnel
Examples: top of the funnel prospects will be more engaged by low-commitment offers
brand advocate segmentation
Consider individuals who advocate for your brand
Examples: thank you emails & feedback requests for customers who recommend your company offers
As you experiment with segmentation, you will find what works best or what makes the most sense for your business. You will also learn more about your user personas and as a result have improved overall inbound marketing insight.
inbound marketing integration
email marketing integration
Email marketing campaigns should be designed to seamlessly integrate with your other inbound marketing channels. It can be incorporated into social media, search engine optimization, and your users’ mobile experience.
integrated analytics
Integrated analytic software—such as HubSpot—allows you to track user behavior on your website and identify patterns in site traffic. Integrated analytics help with email marketing by allowing for user segmentation based on the site behavior of your prospects.
social media integration
Add social media sharing buttons to your campaign emails Use ideas from social media insights to create your content
Incorporate calls-to-action on your social media pages encouraging fans and followers to subscribe to your email list
search engine optimization
Host HTML versions of your emails that are indexable by search engines Use relevant keywords in your emails and their HTML counterparts
Include alt-text with any images
mobile device compatibility
Test email templates on a variety of devices
Create call-to-action buttons and links that are easily clickable on mobile devices Offer both plain text and HTML versions of your emails
conclusion
Email marketing is an essential component for any inbound marketing strategy. Segmenting your email list into groups based on common characteristics will enable your email marketing to be more targeted and ensure that your audience receives your message. Actively work to maintain a quality email list and focus on high deliverability for an optimal return on your investment.
Email marketing is not meant to act as a standalone; it should be integrated into your overall inbound marketing strategy where effective. Stick to best practices, and email marketing will be invaluable for lead generation.
how we can help
media junction® offers our clients complete email marketing support as part of their inbound marketing strategy. Our inbound marketing experts will help you design email marketing campaigns in accordance with industry best practices to help you achieve the greatest possible return on your investment. We will manage your email campaigns as much or as little as you would like, depending on the specific needs of your business. Our in-house designers will create custom email templates that integrate with your company’s branding standards and appeal to your target personas. We will use integrated analytics to help identify opportunities for user segmentation to facilitate targeted email campaigns.
I’ve NEVER seen such innovative design techniques as
what the folks at media junction
®were able to pull off
Nick Salvatoriello, HubSpot
about media junction
®
who we are
media junction® is an inbound marketing agency located in St. Paul, Minnesota. We are known for creating beautiful user centric websites for businesses of all sizes throughout the world. We are a small group of humble visionaries, strategists and techies who love what we do and are passionate about improving user experience—one website at a time. We are always open to working with new clients who share our vision.
