When it comes to looking back on your time in school, everything you’ve learned points back to one specific lesson – getting to know your ABCs. Sure, this might sound like an understatement or generalization, but it’s the truth; without these building blocks serving as the foundation of the educational process, how could you ever delve into history, literature, or even mathematics?With this “building from the ground up” approach guiding the discussion, let’s dig into the ABCs of email marketing, as described by Daniel Faggella of Marketing Land. This way, much like the transition from earlier schooling to advanced studies in high school and college, you’ll have all the tools you need to growth and enhance your brand’s appeal in the inbox.
The Basics Concept Behind This Approach
So what exactly are the “ABCs of email marketing?” As Faggella explains, the “A” stands for aggregating your lists, while building on this overarching list and finding consistency in your inbox represents “B” and “C,” respectively. Essentially, the idea set forth here is that if you can hone in on these three facets of the process, you’ll have no problems enacting more in-depth strategies and methods. Additionally, simply ensuring your brand doesn’t succumb to the pitfalls associated with poor implementation also has a role in learning what goes into these ABCs.
Harnessing the Power of List Aggregation
Now that we’ve taken a look at the big picture, it’s time to zoom in each of the pillars of this approach, starting with list aggregation. In this scenario, properly aggregating your brand’s lists begins with viewing each of your addresses or contacts as a specific resource that can be broken up into nuggets of information and identifiers. Whether it’s geological data or personal information related to the consumer or the organization on the other site of the screen, having this content in hand can help you sub-segment your list and develop emails that lean heavily on optimized messages and lead generation.While all that sounds great, it doesn’t explain the best way to aggregate and segment your existing contacts. If you’re looking for a few tips on how to get to this point, Sujan Patel of Search Engine Journal offers up some insight regarding segmentation and aggregation.First off, compile your assorted lists and let this database serve as the starting point. From here, breaking up your list into popular segments – like customers who have or have not previously made a purchase – can help tell the story of your contacts. Naturally, the more you split and categorize these customers and followers, the more refined and detailed your aggregation and segmentation process will become.
Taking a Step Forward with List Building
Once you have a system in place, Fagella’s next portion of the email marketing alphabet, “B,” is all about building your list up. While this sounds like something that seems fairly straightforward, there’s one underlying truth that makes this process anything but easy – virtually every brand knows how important it is to be king of the email marketing hill. If you want to stand out from the competition, you’ll need to go above and beyond in terms of list building.According to A.J. Kumar of Entrepreneur magazine, the best way to go about list building is by attacking this endeavor from a variety of angles. Whether you’re generating an opt-in page on your branded site or Facebook page, or making the request for email contact info an integral part of your checkout process, politely requesting access to the inbox early, and often, is the best way to cast a wide net and create a list that’s sure to power your operations moving forward.
Finding Consistency in All Phases of Your Email Marketing
Finally, consistency in all phases of your email marketing operation wraps up this fundamental, yet in-depth, approach to going about an email marketing campaign the right way. Email marketing isn’t just about what you send to the customers inbox, so be prepared to take an all-encompassing approach that dips into the rest of your digital marketing efforts. Slipping in opt-in requests in guest posts on other industry sites, networking and building mentions or recommendations on social media, and simply pushing email marketing to the forefront of your operations online is the best way to extract the most value out of this process and promote consistency. Considering that connecting with customers in the inbox shows no signs of slowing down as the most powerful form of digital outreach, chances are you won’t find a better way to spend your time, effort, and web-based marketing budget.
