Despite what you have been told by companies promising you a “set it and forget it” approach to email marketing, you must continually improve your email campaigns to see improved revenue numbers.
All forms of marketing require you to adapt to the buying public. Traditional marketing on and off line requires agility and constant change. The difference is that you must spend money – even when you get no results. With good dashboards, your email marketing is much more effective and much less expensive.
How Comedians Get Funny
A stand-up comedian uses a process to write, test and readjust their routine. You may think that a funny comedian is simply blessed with comedic genius. True pros will tell you that it is a process of development and adjustment to fit an audience.
Your email marketing content requires the same three steps to fit your buying audience.
1. Research: When a comedian is getting started, he has been testing his material for years on friends and family. Based on the response of people closest to him, he takes the material to the stage.
2. Release: A comedienne does not become well-paid and famous when stuck in the research phase. She has to get out of the safe environment of friends and family to stand on stage, release her jokes to an audience and listen to when they laugh (or don’t laugh).
3. Adjust: Based on the laughter of the audience, the comedy act is refined and optimized for the audience in the comedy clubs.
How Email Campaigns Get Profitable
The same process of research, release and adjust is carried into the process of email marketing. Some use the term “agile marketing” for this concept of continual improvement. Agility is a term used in the software development industry. Lean manufacturing forces companies to start with something simple, fully knowing that it will need improvement.
With good dashboards in your CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), you can quickly observe what is resonating with your sales leads and moving them through the buying process. The point of these dashboards is to give you the ability to quickly implement improvements based on the dashboard reports.
According to Copyblogger statistics for Q2 2012, email (4.25%) outperformed search (2.49%) and both of them were way ahead of social (0.59%). However, we all know that you need all of these channels to manage a profitable lead generation strategy. Email is the most personal because in most cases the recipient has shared their contact information with you. And it shows up in personal “real estate” rather than public spaces like the web or social media outlets.
What people show you in your CRM dashboards about what they like in your email marketing campaign is precious information that deserves your response and appreciation. The perfect way to show appreciation is to give them what they want. The way to give them what they want is to pay attention, measure and adjust to their response.
Dashboards are Your Company’s Best Advisor
Our consumer world (both B2B and B2C) has become totally buyer-centric. People will become aware of your company offerings from a number of different activities. You want to allow them to enter wherever it fits their need. At that point, your job is to move them into a deeper relationship with your company and the benefits you offer them.
Email autoresponders and other marketing automation need to be measured for response to move them through your selling process. Never forget that your existing customers are an important portion of your dashboard feedback. They are your best source for both repeat purchases. More than that, they are your opportunity to develop and reward those that share and evangelize what you offer them. Carefully develop a strategy for paying attention to their value in your email marketing.