Time to Break a Few Bad Email Marketing Habits

Time to Break a Few Bad Email Marketing Habits:from Business 2 Community by John W Hayes
Bad habits could include the shotgun approach to email marketing, the ill-planned, hastily produced monthly newsletter and the end-of-month panic when less-than-optimized campaigns are fired out indiscriminately in an attempt to bolster sales figures.
These bad habits are nothing short of lazy attempts at marketing, and you should try your best to break them before they destroy your reputation.
The good news is, now that you have taken the time to get to know your list a little better, it should be much easier to build a proper plan, allowing you to hit that list more effectively.
To build a successful email marketing plan, you’ll need to set some objectives. These could include:
• To increase sales by a percentage/unit number or revenue figure
• To drive a specific number of leads into your sales department
• To improve email marketing engagement by improving both open and click-through rates
• To increase social media engagement, resulting in more followers and greater visibility on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
Once you have set these objectives, take a look at your email marketing history and make an educated guess at how your future campaigns will help you reach these goals. You’ll have to guess if you’re just getting started and you have no history, but be ready to adjust your targets after your initial campaigns have gone out.
When building a useful email marketing plan, you will want to take note of how any increased activity will be handled across your business. Make sure you have enough resources to handle an increase in sales inquiries, additional orders, etc. A successful campaign can quickly turn sour if you are unable to fulfill your promises to your customers.
Important: While you should include colleagues in helping you build an efficient plan in terms of resources available, try not to involve too many people in the creation or sign-off of your campaigns. As a marketer, this is YOUR responsibility. Involving other people will only serve to delay the delivery of your campaigns, as different opinions regarding content and design are aired.
Who Can Help?
• Merchandisers/Buyers: The people who buy your stock and merchandize your store. They should be able to give you detailed information about stock availability, pricing, and any special offers that you could potentially create new email campaigns around.
• Sales Managers: Nobody will scream louder if their sales department is starved or flooded with leads. They should be able to help you plan on ensuring a steady flow of leads that can be followed up in a timely and professional manner.
• Warehouse Managers: Will be able to advise on peaks and troughs on sales, allowing you to plan campaigns around available resources to get your goods out of the door.
• Customer Support Managers: A great barometer for the health of your business. Don’t be afraid to put campaigns on hold if customer support is facing significant problems from your customer base.
For more great tips on building creative email marketing strategies check out this free white paper from iContact.