Deliver The Goods
After receiving a flurry of questions and comments pertaining to our recent blog post discussing email deliverability and email engagement. We’ve decided to write an entire series discussing the subject at length, including email deliverability best practices and some of the potential pitfalls that befall many email marketers.
“Are your customers engaged?”
This is the question that should be at the forefront of all email marketers’ minds when evaluating the results of their programs. The buzzword “engagement” has given way to the reality of seeing and using engagement metrics as a major factor in email deliverability success. The most sophisticated email platforms, like Gmail, have taken engagement-based actions to new heights.
How Has Email Marketing Changed?
The ripple effects of these changing have been far-reaching. Some marketers may find it difficult to let go of the old “batch and blast” mentality when it comes to email marketing. This method of sending out more and more emails to list subscribers was invented by management who figured that email marketing was simply and easy numbers game. If you send out 100 emails to get $20 in revenue, why not send out 1,000 emails to get $200 in revenue? The apparent scalability has mass appeal, and email blasting took off.
Today, an estimated 216.6 million Americans use email, which is roughly 89 percent of total U.S internet users. It stands to reason that blasting the same email to a huge number of people might not work as well as it used to. Your users must have a desire to open up your email and click around. In order to get them to that, you must accept today’s reality: you must center your marketing around each individual customer based on their needs, preferences, knowledge, and behaviors. By orchestrating messages according to this information, you can maximize the success of your email campaigns.
What It Means For You
This means that your focus must shift away from quantity, and towards crafting quality emails based on the data you receive about your audience. This data is imperative. Segmentation, dynamic content, and engagement must come front and center lest your emails find their way to the bulk or spam folder. Needless to say, it’s crucial to get your emails into your reader’s inbox, especially if email is an important part of a coordinated marketing program.
Not only is email deliverability now a concern, but marketers now have to address the explosion of email senders who now have a global audience. Success now also depends on your understanding of necessary regulations that vary from country to country. Needless to say, getting your emails into your reader’s inbox is crucial these days, especially if you’re using email marketing as the starting point for a coordinated marketing campaign.
