Ah yes, the Torpedo 20. State of the art typing from Germany, circa 1952.
But how does it rate as email marketing performance machine? Not well.
So what does the Torpedo 20 have to do with email marketing?
When it comes to email marketing, there are two questions I hear most often:
- How well are my emails performing? And,
- How does my email performance compare to industry benchmarks?
Woah. Slow down.
Before we start comparing apples (the Torpedo 20) to oranges (an optimized marketing automation platform) my advice always starts with a thorough examination of your current email performance.
And it starts by asking three tried and true Torpedo 20-era questions: who, what, and when.
Sounds simple, right? On many levels, it is.
First, stop using the Torpedo 20 for email. Something about integration and WIFI connectivity is getting in the way.
Next, ask…
Who is your audience?
All too often, email campaigns are distributed to everyone in a database.
While this approach can help maximize your audience, it doesn’t help email performance. At best you’ll see two to three percent click-through rate.
When planning your email campaign, consider who among your audience would be most interested in your offer. Typically you’ll be able to identify those people in your database by looking at their job role and how they’ve interacted with your content in the past.
Examine the data that details their website visits and the offers they’ve already downloaded to better target your email campaign to improve performance. You can also create automated nurture streams based on behavioral and or demographic triggers and filters to focus to refine your audience segments even further.
What are you offering?
Content is vital to the success of your email. Successful email nurture campaigns will have more than one message stream, each for an intended audience.
Let’s say you’re running a welcome nurture campaign for new prospects who enter your database. For that audience, you’ll want to target the messaging and provide an offer that appeals to them. For example, if your new contact is someone in an operations role, they’ll most likely want to learn more about how your products and solutions will help them in their roles.
On the other hand, an executive will want to learn more about how your product will help with the business’ bottom line.
By sending more targeted content to your audience, you’re more likely to get their attention and hence improve your email performance.
When are you sending your emails?
The timing of your email communications can have a significant impact on performance.
For example, let’s say I just did a search on Google and came across your pay-per-click ad. I clicked on it and then filled out the form on your website to download your offer.
This shows I’m doing my research and have an interest in your product.
So when should you email me? If you send me an email two weeks after my initial download, I’ll most likely have forgotten what I was looking at and what I learned. I may have already been contacted by your competitors and have purchased their product instead.
Simply put: you snooze, you lose!
However, if you send me a communication within a few minutes or hours of my initial download, then I’ll likely be interested in what you have to say.
While the timing of your communication won’t improve performance on its own, the combined steps you take to target the right audience, with the right content at the right time will work together to deliver the highest email performance possible.
Are you using your email marketing automation tool to the fullest?
You’ve figured out your audience, what you’re offering and when you’re sending your emails, but are you taking advantage of A/B testing, analytics reports, and data stewardship? All this might feel a bit daunting, but testing your email subject lines, reviewing your send and open rates each month and ensuring the leads in your database are high quality will all have a huge impact on your email performance in the long run.
If you can’t manage all this internally, turn to a third party! We’ve helped countless clients manage their Marketo instances day-to-day to keep their communications consistent while providing valuable insights along the way.
Once you’ve answered these four questions…
…you’re ready to take a second look at how you’re doing against industry benchmarks. You might be pleasantly surprised!
You can keep the Torpedo 20 around as a conversation piece.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
