Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy. – Isaac Newton
The concept of a learning guide with a pejorative title has never really made sense to us. Instead of dumbing it down, we’d rather help simplify email marketing.
One of the ways we simplify anything is to be specific about what it is we’re trying to do, with measurable and attainable results. It also helps if what we’re trying to do is both relevant and can be measured over a set period of time. Otherwise, things become harder to quantify, and then we’re muddying the process. In short: the only way to make things “simple” is to make them SMART; so no dummies allowed, here.
Throughout this series, we’ll discuss how to use SMART goals with email marketing. There will be blogs about effective email content and the mechanics and software required to effectively send, measure and react to responses. Other topics will include overall strategy as well as some concepts around “out of inbox” email strategies, because a lot happens with email that extends beyond the email provider. These articles will be short because we know your time is valuable. But don’t worry, you can get the detailed report by downloading our whitepaper, which can be found at the bottom of the article.
So, without further ado, let’s move into SMART email goals.
Determining a specific reason for emailing a customer (or prospect) is the only way to begin generating meaningful content. And that reason should be customer-centric; it isn’t what you want to sell, but rather what problem you can help solve. Brand awareness cannot be the sole goal for email—there needs to be a reason for taking up precious real estate in someone’s busy inbox. Based on your specific reason for emailing the customer, you should have a specific outcome you want that customer to achieve; in doing so, you should be able to achieve your own specific goal.
When it comes to measuring your email marketing efforts, it’s crucial to your strategy to look at all your data points. . No email should ever be an island—your strategy should include multiple messages for the same audience with content that differs based on their level of interaction with the previous content. And, you’ll want to pay attention to email open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, etc. as they’re happening to make adjustments throughout the campaign.
To make your goal attainable, look to your current streams of revenue and your cost per customer acquisition. How are customers already entering your sales funnel? And what is your cost associated with how they got into your funnel? As email is just one marketing tactic, make sure that you calculate how much business your email marketing strategy will need to bring in to overcome those costs. (Not sure where to start? We can work with your team to determine the costs of your email marketing and the average customer spend, and make sure that the achievable goals you’ve set bring in an appropriate and positive return.)
Relevancy has many meanings when it comes to email marketing. There’s obviously the relevance of the content to the reader as well as the relevance of the content to your goals. In the case of this blog, relevancy is about aligning your results to the overall goal you set as the reason for launching the campaign. If you are trying to increase business around one specific type of product or service, and it just so happens that your email is causing incurred sales for a different product or service line, your goal is failing, even though your revenue is up. Therefore, strategy adjustments need to be made, even when things are “working,” or you risk future failures.
Finally, timing is everything when it comes to email marketing. Future blogs will cover the required time to send specific emails, based on client needs, open rates, action items, etc. However, our focus for this blog is to highlight the importance of setting a certain amount of time in which to measure email effectiveness. Goals for email tend to be more short-term; rarely do people dig back through their inbox to look at old emails (especially if they’re unopened). With inboxes being bombarded with hundreds of emails a day, you need to consider tight timelines for effective measuring. Remember, however, that email marketing goes beyond just one email, so your goals for the campaign need to be met in both the short as well as the long term.
Have more queries regarding goal-setting for email marketing? Be sure to get your FREE copy of our whitepaper, Email Marketing is a LOT of Work, for the full dive into email marketing best practices. Fill out the form below and we’ll send you a copy!