7 habits of highly effective email marketers

By: Andrew Stockwell | October 23rd, 2009

We all know about the huge revenue generating potential of email marketing; the potential to communicate to customers at hyper speed for a fraction of the cost of a piece of snail mail…BUT we also know that not done effectively it can eat into the time and resources of a marketing team. Email marketing requires specialist knowledge and in today’s fast moving environment it also requires flexible minds to constantly tweak and evolve the plan to react to what the competition and the ISPs do to change the landscape. In my time working with some of the greatest minds in email marketing I’ve identified 7 habits which really set the most effective email marketers apart from the rest.

1. Focus on email harvesting rather than email hunting

As human beings, when we first farmed the land we ran out of our caves and hunted for every small berry and piece of fruit around us. However to sustain a society we learned to harvest over time and build a maximum reserve of food. Email marketing can be seen in the same way. Email generates the most engaged visits and indeed the most revenue when it is a part of an ongoing programme based on the recipients open, click and behavioural site activity.

2. Focus on sending to the right number of customers rather than the biggest list

Gone are the days when we run around a business trying to locate every last email address from every data supplier and even every redundant data source. (Even if out of commission for 7 years as I have seen done before!!) Email should be collected in the right way and held for a reasonable time and only communicated when the customer wants to be communicated with. If you know the recipient has not opened or clicked in 12 months you must ask the question, if it looks like SPAM and sounds like SPAM…..

3. Messages should always be relevant to the recipient

Remember: when you are doing an email campaign think, “the campaign is for the recipient.” Everything is measurable online, especially if you have integrated email broadcast and web analytics. Use the data to give your customers and prospects what is right for them. Don’t focus on just churning out an email version of another teams mail shot. Make it a relevant part of the purchasing journey, the part of the journey that will take the recipient to water and also make them drink!

4. Automate behavioural segments wherever possible

There are only so many hours in the day. We all know online marketing at the coal face is extremely labour intensive so automate it where possible. Pick key touch points and build an automated behavioural communications cycle to maximise returns. Don’t ignore dropped baskets, do speak to new customers in a different fashion to people who’ve been buying heavily for years and never forget a welcome email is the most important message you will ever send.

5. Be the guardian of the email channel

If you’re going to email someone, do it right. Respect their privacy always and protect it from other departments or even partners who want to push something out that steps over the boundary. Be the champion and guardian of the channel internally and report back on the success this generates. Never be bullied into sending “all those email addresses we found on the old customers services database”. With ISPs now using engagement metrics to score sender reputation it could be the last email any of your customers see for some time…..

6. Optimisation is at the heart of every effective email strategy

Make it a personal objective and an objective for your team to constantly test and improve what you are doing with the email channel. Challenge all those involved in your team and ask your agencies to come up with ideas to test. Think about what you are doing in other channels. Look at customer feedback. Remember the campaign that stood out last month which your competitor sent!

7. Socialise it where relevant

Social media heavy users spend disproportionately more time online across functions than non users. Targeting these users will give you another opportunity to spread your message…. and one thing we know about these online socialites, they love to share with their networks if the item is worthy! The key thing is making it easy to share. Put the links on your email and make the message bite sized so it can flow making the sharer look like they know something great or dare I even say it “cool”.

Because e-mail is a vital communications channel for most online marketers, being effective can have a huge benefit on your bottom line. Follow these successful habits and you are almost there.

Until next time, keep engaging….