Key takeaways
- Email marketing often delivers some of the highest ROIs in digital marketing and can drive a large portion of sales.
- Maximize email ROI by deep personalization, use MAP and CRM data and finer-grained segmentation beyond names, job level, location or industry.
- Chain emails together: reference previous sends, link products or messages and keep consistency across channels to avoid disengagement or spam complaints.
- Continuously test and evaluate campaigns to refine targeting and creative for higher returns.
- Use current features (animated GIFs, live-content streaming, geo-targeting) to boost engagement. For example, GIF Brewery and Movable Ink.
Introduction
When it comes to advertising and marketing, return on investment is one of the best determining factors of its effectiveness. Industry experts will tote their ROIs on spreadsheets and reports to prove that their strategy has worked and that their efforts are worth the cost. It is also a common method for marketers to determine what marketing tactics are most successful so that they concentrate their focus to drive results.
Based on an evaluation of ROI, email marketing has proven itself to be one of the most beneficial forms of marketing. Many businesses attribute a large portion of their sales to email campaigns and it yields some of the highest returns on every dollar invested in the digital marketing industry. In a report released by Econsultancy, it was even rated higher than organic searches and SEO strategies.
This is just further proof that email marketing is one of the most vital components of any marketer’s strategy.
“As a marketing expert who regularly receives tons of emails from people seeking the best digital marketing tool out there, my advice to you is….you can’t afford to miss out on email marketing,” recommends Sujan Patel, contributor to Forbes. “Don’t even think about excluding it from your overall digital marketing plan.”
This prompts the question – how can a marketer maximize their ROI from email marketing?
Personalize as Much as Possible
Nearly every marketer knows that personalization in email marketing campaigns improves conversion and click-through rates, but to what extent should an email be geared towards it reader?Unfortunately, some marketing agents will stop at reader-specific names or only utilize the most basic segmenting tools. However, to see truly astronomical rates of return on investment, a high degree of personalization is totally necessary.
“Start by leveraging your MAP and CRM data to determine your prospects’ respective interests and needs,” says Patel. “Delve past the regular segmentation based on job level, location, industry, and country by tuning your database to pick up finer details.”
This in combination with thorough testing and evaluation will help bring in the best results and the highest ROIs.
Stay Consistent and Supplement Consecutively
Marketers need to be strategic in their email campaigns. Simply residing within one broad category or industry is not enough to effectively engage an audience. They will see no continuation in your email marketing and quickly lose interest or dismiss an email as spam.
“Imagine an email marketer who tries to market you a man’s belt one week, women’s’ shoes the next, and a hat the week after that,” says Patel. “Sure, the emails are all focused on fashion, but they still lack consistency and fail to supplement each other accordingly.”
It is much more effective to tie a chain of emails together by recalling the content from previous send-outs and establishing a relationship between the products. It is also important to remember to keep email marketing consistent with messages shared across other platforms such as social media. This will help reinforce the overall message and encourage a better ROI.
Stay Up To Date
In the beginning, email marketing was essentially text-based generic emails that were repetitively sent out to recipients. However, with the evolution of technology, email marketing has also changed to include all kinds of new features. By using the most recent trends in a campaign, the rate of return is much more likely to increase.
“With the recent popularity of GIFs, for example, you could take advantage of tools like GIF Brewery, which allows you to design and embed relevant GIFs in your emails,” recommends Patel. “You could also leverage Movable Ink to stream content from an API, RSS feed, or website, geo-targeted according to a lead’s location.”
FAQ
Personalization improves conversions and click-throughs by matching content to a prospect’s interests and needs. Leverage MAP and CRM data to go beyond basic segmentation (names, job level, location, industry, country) and tune your database to pick up finer details. Combine that deeper segmentation with testing and evaluation to maximize results.
It means moving beyond broad buckets like job level, location, industry and country and using MAP/CRM data to identify finer behavioural or interest signals. Tune your database so campaigns target more specific prospect needs rather than just basic groups.
Tie emails into a chain by recalling content from previous send-outs and establishing relationships between products or messages. Avoid jumping topics week to week (for example, marketing a belt one week, women’s shoes the next, then a hat) because inconsistent themes fail to supplement each other and disengage recipients.
Use animated GIFs (example tool: GIF Brewery) and streaming live content from APIs, RSS feeds or websites (example tool: Movable Ink). You should also geo-target content according to a lead’s location to make emails more relevant.
ROI is a primary determinant of marketing effectiveness because it shows whether a strategy’s results justify its cost. Many businesses attribute a large portion of their sales to email campaigns and that email marketing can yield some of the highest returns per dollar invested in digital marketing.
Inconsistent topics create no continuation for recipients, who can quickly lose interest or dismiss emails as spam. Even within a broad category, emails must be consistent and mutually reinforcing to avoid disengagement and lower ROI.
