We hear our clients shout, (more than likely in internal marketing meetings), “Let’s do a mail shot”. A single piece of electronic communication destined for failure! Why? Let me explain….

Generally the outcome of the user journey and call to action is not really thought through but at a strategic level a ‘mail shot’ is not Email Marketing, it is merely a shot in the dark with the email addresses you may have acquired over several years and sending them content/offers which probably doesn’t bear any relevance to them anymore.

With every email marketing strategy, testing has to be carried out , I cannot emphasis this enough. This will help cleanse your data, outline data segments for your recipients, understand what type of tone of voice, creative and subject lines works best for those data segments. All in all this process will enhance the success of your strategy.

It is only once this phase of testing has been carried out should your campaign strategy be planned. For example, the types of mailers to be sent e.g. newsletters, sales, a combination of the two. Also the frequency of your mailers, how and when they will tie in with your other marketing activity, whether that be online or offline.

It is this thought process that will define your email marketing strategy and allow it to coincide with your yearly marketing plan to enhance what we call the ‘halo’ effect of your overall marketing activity and really generate some meaningful ROI.

Taking a step by step approach:

- Cleanse your recipient database

- Segment your recipient database

- Send test campaigns

- Analyse reports from test and align creative/content accordingly

- Plan your strategy

- Initiate your campaign

- Generate ROI

To understand this process in its entirety please take a look at the pretty picture I’ve drawn…

http://www.bloommedia.co.uk/email_marketing.pdf

Ketan Ladd