We’re only days away from the turn of the New Year, so now’s a time for festivities and looking back on a job well done over the past year, right? While this is definitely true, it’s only part of the equation when it comes to ensuring the good times are always rolling with your email marketing operations. If you’re interested in keeping your brand one step ahead of the competition, you’ll need a smart approach to 2015. To help you along the way, here’s all you need to know about prepping your email marketing campaign for the coming year and beyond.
Give the Past Its Due
It’s hard to make improvements on the year gone by without a solid introspective look at your prior successes and failures, so Ayaz Nanji of the MarketingProfs research site suggests spending a few minutes giving your previous campaigns an honest assessment. Did you reach the desired contact list numbers you set forth at the beginning of the year? What about conversion rates and offer redemptions? Being open and straightforward with this review is the first step in improving your email marketing performance and setting attainable goals over the next 12 months.
Understand What Metrics Matter to Your Brand
Of course, when reviewing the past or projecting the future, it’s important to know just what metrics deserve your attention. With this in mind, Nanji goes on to identify the performance indicators that matter most to brands that enjoy success in the inbox. Not surprisingly, open rates stand out in this regard. After all, it’s hard to understand what’s going right or wrong within the message if people aren’t opening it up in the first place.From here, click-through rates and conversion numbers help expand upon the success of your content, as well as point your brand in new or more effective directions during the creation process. Finally, with the constant emphasis on mobile usage, knowing which devices your customers prefer to check their email on can go a long way when the time comes to discuss formatting and design templates that promote viewability and a consistent user experience.
Reignite Your Storytelling Passion
Once you’re done on the technical front, it’s worth looking at the conceptual side of your approach to 2015. In her review of this angle of email marketing, Jackie Wright of the Phoenix Business Blog suggests giving customers that warm and fuzzy feeling via great storytelling. Your email content is a blank canvas, so why not take this opportunity to engage and connect with viewers in a way that goes beyond the simple sales pitch?Not every message you fire off has to include a deal or discount, so don’t be afraid to sprinkle in some human interest or new stories. Anything that connects your brand to an eye-popping headline and an interesting read positions you for success in the inbox, so complimenting your standard offerings with these change of pace emails can definitely go a long way with your audience.
Consider Expanding Your Email Operations
Of course, there’s nothing saying that your brand can only implement a limited amount of strategies or approaches. As Avi Dan of Forbes magazine explains, 2015 is set to continue upward trends and be a big year for email marketing, so why not expand your operations and capitalize on the continued growth of this format? Whether you implement more seasonal campaigns or increase your reach and support of your contact list in other marketing areas, shifting a greater focus toward the most powerful marketing practice on the web is hardly a bad call when it comes time to set the coming year’s budget in place.
Whatever You Do Plan, Then Plan Some More
Regardless of which path fits your brand’s approach, Eric Hammis gives a hearty vote of support toward planning out each step of the process. While other forms of advertising and outreach might not require as much foresight, the truly successful players in the world of email marketing have an intricate and precise understanding of every facet of an upcoming campaign. This means that for new initiatives, both large and small, don’t be afraid to go overboard when it comes to the finer points of your content, the visual templates utilized by your organization, promotional materials, and everything else in between. Once you have this plan in place, as well as the rest of the information we’ve covered on hand, you’ll be in position to make 2015 the best year ever for your brand in terms of inbox outreach.