All marketers will agree that when it comes to dependable, predictable marketing channels, email marketing is always at the top of the list. Hovering at around $42 in return for every $1 spent (DMA, 2019), you just can’t ignore the load it carries in your marketing mix.
But it’s a little unfair to compare email to most other channels, because email has something few other channels do: the interest of the audience. Much has been written about the shift from interruption-based marketing to permission-based marketing, and yet it’s interesting how little priority we as marketers often offer to our most impactful channel.
At Litmus, we decided to get serious about putting our top performing channel at the center of our marketing strategy, and it’s showing great returns. Intuitively, we understand that email is where your best interactions with your most qualified audiences happen. But when it comes to top of the funnel strategies, marketers (myself included) are oftentimes not connecting the dots back to our learnings from email.
If email is where your best prospects are in your funnel, you can easily take what you learn there and use it to draw more of the same qualified prospects to you. Did an article perform exceptionally well in email? Put some paid social dollars behind it with a goal of net new subscribers. Do you have a sense of what subject lines get people’s attention? Subject lines and headlines can generate similar interest. Top performing calls-to-action are applicable in every channel. And so on. If we shift our goals top of the funnel to be more about driving the right people to subscribe to our lists, then our ROI machine of an email channel can simply do its job.
But how do you make sure your email programs are delivering the highest value possible? I just completed a two-part webinar series that covers just that.
The first is on Advanced Email Marketing. Here we cover a simple three-part strategy for optimization for any email program. We cover how to analyze your list data, how to line up your email program with your business goals, and most importantly, how to map the prospect journey to your funnel stages. Then, I’ve pulled together some email examples from my own inbox that map back to the funnel stages in a variety of ways.
The second webinar focuses on email design, where it is today, and where it’s headed in the next few years. We cover how brands are making their emails more interactive and visually interesting, what you need to know about Google’s AMP for Email, and when to use a text-only email.
Curious about Dark Mode? We have some ideas there too. We also spend some time on the idea of an “email style guide” that can make your design process more agile and impactful along the way.
Email marketing is finally getting recognized not only for the workhorse that it is but also for the value it’s offering subscribers every day. I’m committed to spending more time on how we’re delivering the best experience for this important audience, and I encourage you to join me as I walk through some simple strategies for optimization and innovation.
Thanks for listening!
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