We recently explored how to vet various email platforms and reviewed key tips to remember when selecting your email marketing management system. Having the right email marketing platform is a solid foundation but crafting an email that can cut through the digital clutter and reach your audience depends on more than just your platform. Carefully choosing the goals and structure of your email campaign while considering important formatting trends are key factors in creating successful email campaigns. In part two of our series, we will explore six different types of email marketing campaigns. Join us in two weeks for our final installment when we review a series of important formatting factors to keep in mind when launching your email initiatives.
Types of Email Campaigns
Email marketing campaigns are widely used to drive sales; however, well-written emails can also be a powerful tool in improving brand loyalty and expanding business. Most email marketing and marketing automation platforms offer a wide array of templates and drip campaign functions that create a multitude of marketing opportunities. A brief review of short term and long term marketing objectives should point you in the direction of one or more of the following six email marketing strategies:
Promotional & Sales Campaigns
This style of campaign is meant to inform current subscribers of new product updates or extensions, upcoming exclusive sales or web-driven discounts. Use consumer purchases to trigger follow-up emails offering compatible products or services at a discount. This enhances the personalization of email campaigns and educates consumers on offerings like those they have already expressed interest in, which can lead to secondary purchases. To market general sales, create unique promotional codes that are exclusive to your email list that can be tracked to verify the success of your campaign. This creates a sense of exclusivity for subscribers which will keep their attention and boost open rates.
Newsletter, Company Updates & New Content
To generate brand loyalty and develop a brand persona, companies can write newsletters to connect with their audience. Newsletters should be reflective of brand language and tone while reaching out to subscribers on a personal level. Companies often discuss business enhancements, highlight employee additions or successes, link to new website content, share pictures of office outings, and even ask trivia questions – anything to engage with their audience outside of a sales-driven strategy. It is best to plan these campaigns on a monthly or quarterly basis for consistency to remind subscribers of the human quality of the business. Build trust through interesting communication that is not directly intended to drive specific sales.
Surveys & Feedback
Subscribers are generally a diverse and quality audience that can be leveraged to determine popular opinion. Companies can create surveys to help formulate important brand identifiers like incident response strategies, potential sales, new branding, etc. Consider sending an email requesting customer feedback on products, services, or policies. Utilize this information for quarterly reports and action plans. Companies can also create an email marketing campaign asking their dedicated consumers for online reviews to boost sales.
Automated Purchase Confirmation or Thank You Responses
Most email marketing platforms offer a basic automation system composed of triggers and accompanying emails based on customer actions. Businesses utilize these platforms to automatically send detailed thank you or confirmation emails after a product has been purchased, a service has been completed, a user filled out an important form, or new users have subscribed to their blog. Automation can also further personalization by triggering customer-specific emails for birthdays or specific purchase anniversaries.
Events
Companies can build campaigns centered around events they are hosting or sponsoring to build their brand persona and engage with their customers. Highlighting philanthropy is an easy way to capture the hearts of consumers while subtly persuading them to further patronize their business. Most email marketing platforms have themes and templates for invitations, follow-ups, reminders and thank-you email. Not only can businesses maintain an organized guest list and manage ongoing communication without hassle, but they can also highlight how they are affecting their community, creating brand loyalty among their subscribers.
New Leads
Lead generation email campaigns are a series of emails based on varying first points of contact. Whether a new user has visited a company’s site or requested more information, a well-crafted automated drip campaign can turn those leads into sales. Use of an email marketing platform can help lead a prospect through a company’s sales process and drive them back to the products or services they viewed while using the company’s website initially.
Determining how often to reach out to subscribers and with which style of campaign can be time-consuming. Setting up the appropriate framework initially will save time and expense later. Well-built email marketing campaigns can be adjusted based on response rate, while poorly structured initiatives require complete reorganization. Take the time to evaluate your business goals and start small. Work on one strategy and build your knowledge base from there. Navigating email marketing strategy is complex and a poorly-written, widespread email can spell disaster. For more information on structuring email campaigns, contact us.
About Ocreative
Ocreative is a Milwaukee marketing agency, with expertise and broad experience in developing digital marketing strategies, and growing their online presence, for their clients. The company’s core values include offering the highest level of customer service, award-worthy quality, and performance that surpasses client expectations. Ocreative is located just outside Milwaukee, and works with clients locally, nationally, and globally. Their clients have access to some of the most fun and knowledgeable professionals around – ones who inspire, educate, and problem solve. The agency provides marketing and brand strategy, advertising and design, website design and social media, and video expertise to their clients, fulfilling their desire for business growth, and their aspiration to make a mark on their industry.
