End the Battle – Is Effective Email Marketing an Art or Science?

by | Jul 21, 2014

Some marketers say email marketing is an art. Others say email marketing is a science. The reality is it’s a combination of both.

You have to think like an artist to create engaging email marketing campaigns. Yet, campaigns can fall flat without the scientist analyzing data. CRM software makes it simple to embrace both the artist and the scientist when creating and implementing your email campaigns.

The Artist

Writing emails is where the inner artist shines. The goal is to grab the reader’s attention and evoke an emotional response.

Set the scene through the use of sensory words. Allow the reader to see the scene in their mind’s eye. Tug on their heartstrings and make the reader feel the words you are saying.

Embrace your inner storyteller. Tell the reader a personal story that makes them laugh. Let your personality be your guide. Be quirky and confident in what you share.

Creating buyer personas is another job for the inner artist. Take some time to visualize your perfect customer. A buyer persona is a profile of this perfect customer. What are their desires? What problems do they have? These are important questions to answer.

 

Imagine yourself having a conversation with this customer. What do they look like? Do they have a family? These characteristics may seem trivial, but they help you with the development of the personal connection with your prospect.

Create more than one buyer persona. It helps your inner scientist segment your list to create a laser targeted email campaign.

The Scientist

Your inner scientist loves data. Data is what drives the results of a marketing campaign. The CRM dashboard is the domain of the inner scientist.

Here is where you set up your metrics and track the success of your current campaigns. When it comes to metrics the possibilities are endless. The key is to track the right metrics.

Two of the most important metrics are opens and click-through rates. Click-through rates show the reader’s engagement with your call to action.

Other important metrics are decided based on the overall goals of your campaign. Spend some time with the development of these goals before you begin.

Let your inner scientist take over and embrace experimentation. Perform A/B testing with subject lines. Send 10% of your list subject line A and send another 10% with subject line B. Send the remaining readers the subject line which gets the best response.

 

Do the same experiment with personalized subject lines. Experiment with image-laced emails vs. emails with no images.

All of these experiments provide valuable data for your inner scientist to analyze.Use this data to make changes to the weak areas of your campaign.

There has always been those who see a distinct separation between the artist and the scientist. Email marketing proves they are two sides of the same coin needed to create a holistic email marketing campaign.