With the year rapidly coming to a close, it’s time to start considering your 2017 email marketing strategy, if you haven’t already done so. Those gurus who prematurely announced the demise of email marketing as an effective marketing strategy, are now being forced to acknowledge that it’s still the real workhorse of marketing, especially in the mobile arena, where it has always dominated. That being so, here are some things you should incorporate into your own email strategy for the coming year.
Email marketing components for 2017
The first place to start is with those elements of your 2016 marketing strategy which worked well – it’s always a smart move to build on prior successes, and only abandon those parts of the overall strategy which aren’t working as well. But don’t just repeat those successful components – make them better by testing, refining, and creating more streamlined campaigns.
To the greatest extent possible, make your 2017 campaigns data-driven, so that you aren’t just taking a shot in the dark about the preferences and pain points for your target audience. Make use of information you’ve gathered from all channels, which identifies the difference between warm leads, ad-hoc customers, and regular customers, and tailor your approach to each accordingly.
As mentioned above, make sure you have a mobile presence, because email has always been particularly strong in the mobile department, and that means your mobile email marketing will have an enormous built-in audience, which is hopefully receptive to your message. Keep in mind that more than 60% of all emails opened anywhere last year, were opened on mobile devices, which is a trend that has continued to grow every year for at least the past several years, and figures to be extended into next year.
Make it crystal clear to your target audience what kind of action you want them to take when they receive your email. Many a campaign has been unsuccessful, or much less successful than it might have been, because it did not clearly relate to the reader what the desired action should be. If you want readers to click on a link, make that clear as day. And if you want the reader to visit your website, be sure that the URL is provided, and that the navigation path is fully functional. Don’t leave any room for doubt in the mind of your readers, or you’ll probably lose them.
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