Your email list is one of your core marketing assets for increasing revenue. Evolving email marketing into Marketing Automation takes it to another level again. Marketing Automation is rooted in Email Marketing. Marketing Automation software tools identify which stage of the buying process a Prospect is in, and guides them to the next, relevant to them, stage, until they convert into a Customer.
Why make marketing automation a priority channel?
The average Return on Investment for email marketing is $38 for every $1 spent. This means a ROI of 3800%. The average order value of an email is at least three times higher than that of social media. Of all the Marketing Channels, it returns the highest ROI.
Benefits of Marketing Automation
There are many benefits to creating and implementing a Marketing Automation Strategy:
- Behavioural Targeting
Your emails are customized, based on specific actions that a prospective customer takes, for example: opening the email, downloading a document attached to the email, clicking the link to a specific webpage, or they may choose to do nothing.
Make sure that you understand and track the action you want the Prospect to take when receiving your email.
- Track Prospect Behaviour Outside of the Inbox
You can track your prospect’s behavior on the website, and in social media, which further helps you determine what path you put them on, in your Marketing Automation Road Map
- Insights into their preferences and needs
This helps you both understand your prospect more, and cater their marketing automation journey to those preferences/needs.
- Track what converts, replicating and scaling
If more conversions happen after watching a video, or reading a blog post, it is prudent to scale that further.
Key considerations within your marketing automation campaign
Lead Capture Landing Pages
There are some Best Practice edicts that are relevant for Lead Capture, Landing Page development, these include:
Focus on the Real Estate Above The Fold
Even in a world of multiple device types, resolutions, browsers, and so on, it is still best practice to ensure that your core Value Proposition, including benefit to the prospect, and CTA are formatted to appear above the fold. Don’t expect your prospect to be as invested in your business, as you are. Don’t make them work hard to do what you want – scrolling is ‘hard work’
Law of Value Exchange
Prospects need to feel they are receiving something of value, in exchange for their email address. Prospects determine what value is. You may need to test a few offers, to see what converts best.
Have a Clear CTA
You need to tell your prospect/customer exactly what you want them to do. Don’t use fancy language – be direct. Avoid use of word, ‘submit’, as tests have confirmed negative psychological connotations for prospects.
Personalise
You need to create landing pages specific to the keyword (Adwords), or audience targeting (facebook). It is not a case of ‘one landing page for all’.
Simple & Focused
Clean design, and well crafted, strategic wording are essential. Do not clutter with many messages, or irrelevant design inclusions outside of the core branding. Keep it simple and focused. Remember that it is always about what’s in it for the prospect, vs features, alone.
Marketing automation strategy
Your Marketing Automation Strategy is essentially the Road Maps for your Prospects’ and Customers’ email journeys. The Road Map and strategy may be different for a New Product Launch, vs Promotional Campaign, vs Upselling Customers to another product/service.Within your Marketing Automation Strategy you want to consciously determine the frequency of email sends, the type of email (auto responder or broadcast), and also formatting of email – text or html. On the latter, many wrongly assume that HMTL outperforms Text. However research shows that whilst people say they may prefer HTML, Open and Conversion rates are higher with Text email. Test for your own list
One Email, One Task
With Digital Marketing, the ‘Rule of One’ is key. ‘One Webpage, One Job’. So too with email. It is about being focused – rifle vs shotgun. You want to determine the answer to this series of questions with each email you write:
- What is the ONE message you want to communicate?
- What is the ONE link you want them to click on?
- What is the ONE action you want them to take?
Keep your emails uncluttered in both content matter and images (if using html).
Subject Title of your Email
33% decide whether to open an email, based on the Subject. First impressions count. Recognising that 40% of emails are opened on Mobile, keep the Subject short and sweet – under 50 characters. Use a familiar sender name, personalise, and ensure that the content delivers on the Subject line. Other tips include using action oriented verbs, not passive, flowery language. Make people feel special – it’s the birthday of your product/service so you’re offering something in celebration of that. Or that you recognise them as a customer vs on the general list. Create a sense of urgency – past tests achieve a 22% higher open rate. Or pose a relevant and compelling question. Always avoid CAPS & excessive exclamation marks!!!!!
Test to assess open rates, and then replicate.
Content of your Email
Writing the content of an email is an art form, and requires a different approach to other digital copywriting.
With email, you want to write as if one to one, using ‘you’. You want to be friendly, generous and useful. You don’t want to be too formal, and use abbreviations. ‘It’s’, ‘there’s’, ‘don’t’; rather than ‘It is’, ‘there is’, or ‘do not’. Some email content writing experts suggest ‘dumb it down’ – that does not mean using text spelling. Rather the language is more like you’re talking to someone you know. Give as much as possible (decent discount, special offer to list only, information only for the list), and remember to include the benefits of them vs just the features. Always tell them why they’re being mailed in the first paragraph, and get to the point – focusing on one topic in each email, with one link (repeated several times) to click.
Don’t try to sell in the email. The landing page does that job.
Train your list to click through, by providing lots of relevant content for them to click through and engage with, so that when it comes to a paid offer, they know the drill.
Test, Test, Test
Everything is testable with your Marketing Automation Campaign.
Some key measures used in Marketing Automation are:
- Opt-in rate (conversion onto your list)
- Open rates of Emails
- Click through rates of links
- Viewing rates of videos
- Reading of content pages
- Listening to audio
Summary
Marketing Automation is one of your business’s key Assets & revenue earners. It offers you many additional points of contact and opportunities to convert. It also allows you to learn more about your target group (prospects & customers) and what is important to them.
Every part of Marketing Automation is a series of Strategic decisions. Every word used on a landing page, in an email, is a Strategic choice.
Many conversion milestones through-out the Marketing Automation funnel. You can test for your own business, to see what works best, based on these Best Practice tenets.