 As we all know, email marketing allows marketers to reach a wide audience at one time. Though it seems logical that one would increase marketing potential by reaching out to every single lead and contact with every email send, it is not always the most effective email marketing strategy. This is because a single brand can spark a variety of interests amongst subscribers.
Consequently, the more information a marketer can collect about subscribers, the more meaningful and successful an email campaign will be.
Understanding your subscribers' interests builds a strong foundation to provide them with continuously up-to-date and enticing information, ultimately maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with them. Sounds great, but how is this achieved? Two simple methods: targeting and testing.
1. Target
The attention span of email readers is extremely short due to the high number of email messages that people receive every day. Irrelevant email containing no value to subscribers will be ignored, discarded or marked as spam. The combination of these behaviors makes it imperative for email marketers to thoughtfully target their audience.
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Ensure that the content within the email message directly corresponds to the profile of the group of subscribers the message is being sent to. This will result in better deliverability, open and click through rates simply because the email message is relevant and meaningful.
2. Test
To increase the efficacy of your email marketing further, always test, test, test. Targeting the right content to the right group of subscribers will spark interest. Testing different components of an email campaign will confirm what subscribers find enticing. Common A/B split testing involves changing a single component within an email and sending to randomly selected distribution groups.
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50/50: Split your list or targeted segment into two equal parts. The email version scoring the highest metrics in terms of opens and clickthroughs is the version that will be sent for a future mailing to the entire list or targeted segment.
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10/10/80: Split 20% of your list or targeted segment into two equal parts – 10% receiving one version, 10% receiving a different version. The version scoring the highest metrics in terms of opens and clickthroughs is then sent to the remaining 80% of the list or targeted segment.
Elements to test:
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Subject line
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Call to action
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Template design
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Day of week
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Time of day
Consistently combining thoughtful targeting and testing of email campaigns will provide meaningful results that can be applied to future marketing efforts.
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