Understanding the ‘big picture’ for email marketing success

Published October 7, 2014 at 10:18 am

A company committed to improving its email marketing should be focused on success, but not so much focus that it doesn’t they don’t consider all of its options and possibilities. Researching different tools, watching competitors, and looking at dominant industry trends can help marketers develop their own strategies without copying too much from other people. That way, they will have some frame of reference when they begin.

Writing for MediaPost, Loren McDonald cited a lack of larger reference as one of his “pet peeves” when it comes to bad email marketing campaigns. He writes that less experienced companies are often asking what the “best” possible course of action is without instead focusing on a process that works best for them. Instead of studying other email marketing strategies as a means of measuring one‘s own success, he suggests doing it to simply have a better understanding of what’s available in the industry.

“I’m amazed that many email marketers don’t know the other marketing technologies their companies use — or even basics such as the percentage of subscribers who bought at least once, average customer lifetime value or what percentage of subscribers they consider inactive,” he writes. “Understand the bigger picture, and you will be more successful.”

The good news is email marketing in general is still a highly profitable area, according to a survey of global marketers by Ascend2 and MarketingCharts.com. Compared to social media, websites and other forms of modern marketing, email was found to have not only the highest effectiveness but also the least difficulty.

This shows that businesses have a powerful tool at their disposal in email marketing, as long as they have a firm understanding of it before beginning an automatic marketing campaign.