Ashley Lawson is the Senior Manager of Email Marketing at Caesars Entertainment.
Lawson, who has worked in the email marketing industry for over a decade, spoke with us about the various challenges that marketers face when trying to drive email engagement and the specific tactics used by the team at Caesars to grow their email subscriber base by 77% in the last year alone.
Email Marketers’ Battle For Attention
The increasing adoption of click-free journeys and the shift to mobile marketing have led to a situation where marketers now battle for attention within their target audiences. Those with the most effective strategies will inevitably triumph over those who do not.
The good thing is that there is a lot that can be done to prepare for, and fight back against, this situation. Email marketers can utilize a variety of tactics that will help them to engage with potential customers, whether they are leading them to a sale, enticing them to subscribe, or simply drawing their attention to a particular email.
Some of the most effective weapons in a marketer’s arsenal include;
Personalization
One of the surest ways of gaining a customer’s attention is through personalization, which can be used to tailor an offer to a particular individual. For example, a marketer might want to take into consideration the products that a customer has previously shown an interest in, or that they have purchased. With a personalized email, the recipient will feel like the message was specifically crafted to them, based on their personal data and previous behavior.
This particular email marketing tactic will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the customer, and a much more effective experience for both parties.
It is always tempting to simply blast out one-size-fits-all emails, however, tailoring content to an individual based on their previous behavior can help create much greater value for both the customer and the business. As a general rule, businesses that leverage customer data will experience substantial growth in customer satisfaction and retention, as well as an increase in sales.
Segmentation
One of the primary purposes of marketing is to define and segment the audience, so that relevant communications can be delivered to each group. For example, a business might want to send marketing emails to customers who have bought a certain brand of shoes, or those who live in a certain part of the country.
A well-segmented email list will allow marketers to craft custom offers and content that is relevant to each group, leading to increased engagement and conversions.
Email marketing is not one-size-fits-all, and businesses will soon discover that segmentation and personalization are the keys to effective marketing.
Automation
While humans have a remarkable ability to create personalized and personalized experiences, algorithms and automation can replicate and even surpass these abilities. Businesses that adopt automation will experience an increase in productivity as well as a decrease in operational costs. Algorithms can scan through hundreds or thousands of emails per day, and route new messages to designated contacts, creating personalized experiences for customers that would be difficult for even a highly-engaged marketer to craft manually.
For example, if a business sends weekly sales emails and a large portion of their customer base are no longer interested in receiving these offers, it would be best if their marketing team could set up automated emails that would gently remind them of the latest offers, while also increasing their engagement by incorporating voice and data-driven personalization.
Content
The type of content that businesses will find works best for email, and the perfect blend of content, personalization, and automation can help businesses to succeed in the digital age. While some businesses will opt to simply blast out generic emails, adding personalization and automation will lead to much greater engagement and an increase in qualified leads.
The content that businesses send via email should aim to be concise, yet sufficiently detailed to be helpful to the recipient. Giving customers too much information doesn’t necessarily work in your favor; they want to feel like the email was crafted with them in mind, and sufficient information was provided for them to take action.
Testing, Testing, And More Testing
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and this certainly applies to email marketing. The goal of every test is to find the pain point in the process and then eliminate it. With every test, there is the anticipation of the plan going wrong, but then when it does, it feels like a complete disaster.
The process of testing and breaking down email marketing flaws is tedious and often requires significant resources. For example, a business might want to compare the performance of two different email marketing campaigns, one using a simple text template, the other using a fun logo and a colorful palette to attract attention. To fully understand the differences between these two versions, the text content needs to be analyzed and coded, and the design of the email should be compared line-by-line to identify discrepancies.
An experienced email marketer like Ashley Lawson will be able to identify many of the issues that your business faces, and then craft an actionable plan to address them. Having a clear idea of the marketing strategy and goals will then allow the business to monitor the effectiveness of the plan, and make further modifications as needed.
The more that businesses rely on digital marketing to gain market share, the more that they will see the value in a tailored approach to e-commerce marketing. E-commerce stores and platforms that utilize personalization and automation will flourish, as customers can feel that they are receiving a message that is relevant to them, and have the additional benefit of having a better experience as a result.