Optimizing your Email Marketing Strategy

The number of businesses that now choose to conduct their marketing online has risen exponentially. Most businesses now operate a website and / or mailing list, and those who don’t will find themselves missing out on a huge share of advertising potential. Digital marketing has diversified considerably and is now available in more forms than was ever possible for traditional marketing strategies. It is also more cost effective and quicker than traditional advertising, and can take place across many platforms; social networks and email being the two most popular.
Email marketing is a great choice for businesses which are looking for a significant ROI, which is possible due to the relatively small initial cost of setting up a capable email marketing strategy. However the mechanics of email marketing demands at least a small amount of know-how from any business which intends to conduct an email marketing campaign.
Planning Your Email Marketing Campaign
A great email marketing strategy takes time, preparation, knowledge and creativity. For an email marketing campaign to be effective it needs to reach the optimal amount of people at the right time, and deliver the right content in the right way to increase engagement.
When planning an email marketing campaign you should always take into account the following factors:

• The quality of your leads and lists.
• What segments you need to be targeting to achieve your campaign objective.
• How appealing your content is and how your audience will respond to it.
• How relevant your product is – whether it’s information or an offer – to your audience.
• Where you want your subscribers to end up when they click your links.
• How well optimized your website is to receive visitors.

The last point is an important one. No matter how great your email marketing campaign is, if your website is sluggish, dull, over optimized or irrelevant your visitors will leave as quickly as they arrived. Your website needs to be optimized before you begin your email marketing campaign, not during, and certainly not after. When considering website optimization you will need to take into account the look, accessibility, content and visibility of your site, which may well mean implementing SEO and social media networking to boost your rankings.
Creating Your Marketing Emails
Your subscribers will fall into one, or both, of two categories; list specific and offer specific. Since each group will be more and less receptive to particular offers and information you must create emails which target each group accordingly. Diversification is your friend; by keeping your content as relevant as possible you will see a much higher conversion rate.
Planning and creating content is a crucial part of all email marketing strategies. Your subscribers need to be able to connect with your brand and product straight away, which is no easy feat for even the savviest of marketers. But by paying attention to current trends – such as the recent rise of infographics – and by following in the footsteps of other companies who have already conducted highly successful email marketing campaigns, you will gain inspiration for creating your own amazing emails.
Conducting Your Email Marketing Campaign
Once you’ve created your highly relevant and interesting email campaign you must determine the optimal time to deliver it to your subscribers. There is no set frequency for optimizing the delivery of your email marketing campaign since results are dependent upon a number of factors, such as the size of your company and subscriber list, and your product type. However data collation shows that both under and over exposure can do more harm to your campaign than good.
Sending too many emails is a sure fire way to lose revenue. How? By sending emails too frequently you may cause your subscribers to develop fatigue and turn off from your campaign. A good marketing email should not catch your subscribers off guard, nor should it seem too ‘salesy’. Great content and good timing can make all the difference between a sales email reading either like an advert or a useful bit of information.
Optimize Your Email Marketing Strategy Today
There’s only one dependable way to optimize your email marketing campaign if you don’t already have experience in this field. By employing the services of a professional email marketing campaign manager or company you will be able to utilize their experience and expertise alongside your own, to serious advantage.
About the Author: Amanda writes about online marketing, email marketing services and other tech topics for businesses.