The concept behind corporate email marketing is fairly simple – get a bunch of marketing emails to people who have already agreed to receive them. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well, not quite. To begin with, you need a clear understanding of what constitutes a successful email campaign. There are a number of best practices that you should embody in your strategy, regardless of your campaign’s target audience. You should also develop a clear understanding of how email marketing works and what elements are necessary to craft a successful campaign. Finally, you need to set a budget and timeline for your email marketing plan.
Here, we’ll discuss how to create a strong corporate email marketing strategy for companies of all sizes.
Set A Budget And Timing For Your Email Campaign
There are a variety of options for email marketing campaigns, but none of them are free. You have a choice between paid email marketing services and DIY email marketing. The first one provides you with a predefined set of email templates and lets you send out an email to a group of individuals. The second one allows you to build your own email templates and send out an email to your list of subscribers. You must also set a budget and timeframe for your email campaign, including the number of emails you will send out and the days and hours you will launch your campaign. Setting proper budget and timing for your email campaign is crucial, especially if you want to ensure you will generate the desired results.
Understand Your Target Audience
The first step in developing a successful corporate email marketing strategy is to understand your target audience. You need to know who you are sending your emails to and why. That is, you need to know the demographics, psychographics, and digital habits of your ideal buyer persona.
Know your audience’s demographics first. These are the simple facts about your target audience such as gender, age, and location. It is also essential that you know the psychographics of your target audience. These are the individuals’ internal make-up, their psychological makeup, or their personalities. In other words, these are the drivers of behavior.
For example, if you are targeting baby boomers (aged 50 to 70), you will need to consider their stage of life, their income, and their digital habits. So, if you are developing a corporate email marketing plan for a clothing company, you might want to target customers on your email list who are in their 50s, live in suburban areas, and are likely to purchase clothes online.
Create A Vision And Goal For Your Email Campaign
Now that you have your target audience in mind, you can begin to lay out a clear vision for your email marketing strategy. A vision is an overall picture of what you are trying to achieve, whereas a goal has a more specific meaning – it is the result you are looking for.
Your vision and goal should be based on previously conducted research or analysis of your target audience. To create a strong vision and goal for your email marketing strategy, consider the following:
- The type of content you will put out.
- The marketing methods you will use
- The metrics you will use to measure success
- The timeframe you will use
- Additional information
- The budget you will use
- The email marketing software you will use
- The copywriter you will hire
- The designer you will hire
- The marketer you will hire
- What social media platforms you will use
- What events you will attend
- How you will publicize your event
- Your website’s URL
Ensure that your vision and goal are measurable. You should be able to clearly state what you will do and how you will do it. Consider the following examples:
- To increase web traffic to our website, we will use the keywords “best organic peanut butter” in all our content.
- To increase our social media presence, we will use the hashtags #peanutbutter and #organic on all our posts.
- To raise brand awareness for our company, we will hold an event that focuses on educating people about the importance of organics in their diet.
- To generate more leads, we will use a marketing automation tool to send a series of automated emails to our list of patrons.
Craft a Suitable Name For Your Email Campaign
It’s important to choose a name for your email campaign that is both memorable and relevant to your target audience. You want your recipient to be able to associate the name you choose for your campaign with the content you send out under that name.
It is also advisable to choose a unique name for your email campaign. If you are running a DIY campaign, you can use a tool to generate random email addresses for your campaign. For example, if you are using the name “Company Name”, your emails will look like this:
To receive special offers from our partners, you must subscribe to our mailing list.
Depending on your target audience’s size and demographics, you may want to consider the following:
- Using a funny nickname for the campaign.
- Using an email alias of “firstname.lastname” (e.g., “John.Doe@email.com”)
- Having a different email address for the marketing and sales departments (e.g., “sales@email.com” and “marketing@email.com”)
- Having a different email address for your IT department (e.g., “tech@email.com”)
- Having a different email address for your legal department (e.g., “legal@email.com”)
- Having separate email addresses for your PR and social media departments (e.g., “press@email.com” and “social@email.com”)
To keep your emails concise, you should aim to use the same template for every email you send out. The subject line of your email should match the content of your email, and your email body should be broken up into short, informative paragraphs that are easy to read.
Determine Your Message
The second step in developing a successful email marketing strategy is to determine your message. Your message is the central message that you will use to persuade people to take action. It is the single most important element of your strategy because it will dictate the entire content of your email.
Your message needs to be concise but also extremely informative. It should cover all the essentials a reader needs to know to understand and take action on your offer. To succeed in your endeavor, your message must be readily accessible to your audience.
To determine your message, examine what your target audience needs and what you have to offer. If you are creating a marketing email, you might want to begin with the following sentence:
This is an automated email to let you know that…
…you have new content available.
…you are launching a new product.
…you are hosting an event.
…you are changing your affiliate program.
…you are offering a special discount.
…you are having server issues.
…you need to find a new web hosting provider.
…you are updating your privacy policy.
…you are changing your contact details.
…you are sending out a survey.
…an investor is interested in your company.
…you need to decide whether to renew your business license.
…you want to invite more people to join your mastermind group.
…you are hiring new employees.
…you need to approve a new vendor or supplier.
…you want to send an email to your list of subscribers to let them know you are launching a new product.
…you want to invite your LinkedIn contacts to join your organization’s LinkedIn group.
…you are making changes to your website’s content.
…you want to post a blog entry about a certain topic.