E-Mail Marketing

E-mail marketing is an exceptionally powerful tool. It can be a means of achieving a substantial increase in customer lifetime value (the amount of profit contributed per customer over the estimated period of a customer relationship). But take note: as effective as e-mail marketing is, it can be dangerous if it is not used correctly. Only personal, relevant and expected content will be successful.

E-Mail Marketing: Step By Step To A Successful Campaign

The following approach has proven effective in practice:

Step 1: Is It Worth Using E-Mail Measures In My Company?

Clarify whether using e-mail measures in your company meets a need. If some of the following points apply to your company, using e-mail measures will enhance your marketing activities:

• A web presence is in place or planned
• E-mail is already used as a means of communicating with customers, suppliers and employees
• Direct marketing measures such as mail shots and telemarketing are used
• A large proportion of the target audience uses computers/smartphones
• There are products that require a lot of explanation
• Pro-active public relations are used
• Competitors conduct online marketing
• Customer retention is a central aspect of the marketing strategy

Step 2: Find The Objective In Using E-Mail And A Suitable Form Of Address

How e-mail should be used depends on the objective that you wish to achieve. Defining this objective is, in turn, part of the overall online strategy. Objectives may include:

• Market research
• Awareness (branding)
• Customer acquisition
• Customer relationship management
• Customer retention
• Customer reacquisition

Both in the new customer acquisition phase and in customer retention, an e-mail newsletter is the ideal customer management tool for communicating product, price, service and company information. Besides the newsletter, e-mail marketing also includes direct e-mails, discussion lists, news groups and auto-responders. The next steps explicitly discuss the newsletter as a customer retention tool.

Step 3: Technical Requirements For Newsletters

In order to launch a newsletter, the following technical requirements must be met:

• Internet access
• A suitable e-mail program (e-mail client)

Selecting a suitable e-mail marketing software solution is a critical step. There are countless programs that are similar in their basic functions, but differ significantly in detail. Nowadays, most programs are designed to perform a whole range of other functions besides merely distributing e-mails and newsletters.

Step 4: Resource Planning

A newsletter’s success very much depends on its organization. Give careful consideration to the time and financial resources you have available for it and how they can be most wisely used. For you to be able to make a realistic estimate of the resources, the internal time and effort required for the following tasks must be clear:

• Editorial work (research, writing texts, corrections)
• Design/layout/formatting
• Distribution
• Response handling
• List maintenance

The resources available also influence how frequently the newsletter is distributed. Whether you distribute it monthly, weekly or even daily makes a big difference.

Step 5: Insourcing Or Outsourcing?

As a general rule, the larger the list and the more complex the newsletter, the more it is worth considering collaborating with a professional e-mail marketing provider. There are basically three models that can be used to carry out e-mail marketing:

1. Installing software on the company’s own system (full insourcing)
2. ASP (Application Service Provider) model: accessing an external system via a web interface. In this case, the software is made available
3. Full outsourcing to a full-service provider

Each option has specific advantages and disadvantages and should be looked at in detail for each company.

Step 6: Implementation (Campaign Management)

Whether the newsletter is implemented in-house or with external partners should not affect the approach. Careful, step-by-step campaign planning is crucial to success. This essentially includes the following steps:

1. Conceptual design (defining the target audience and the objectives, defining the offering, content, call to action, response options, technology)
2. Organization (address selection, personalization, formulation, design, company-internal organization)
3. Tests (function and marketing tests)
4. Distribution (setting the date, activating distribution)
5. Statistics (invalid e-mail addresses, click-through rate, unsubscribers from the newsletter)
6. Analysis (measuring success using financial metrics such as costs per order (CPO), etc.)