Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to communicate with customers and potential customers. Companies large and small use email campaigns to stay in touch with their customers and to promote new products and services. Forrester predicts that email marketing will account for nearly all of the digital marketing activity in 2021.
Whether you’re just getting started with email marketing or you’re looking to take your campaigns to the next level, it’s important to have the right email marketing maturity model in place before you begin your campaign. Simply put, a maturity model defines the standards you’ll use to determine how well you’re performing and what you need to do next.
The 4 Steps To A Maturity Model For Email Marketing
To develop a mature email marketing strategy, you must follow four steps:
1. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs)
The first step in the email marketing maturity model development process is to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to determine your success. You should choose KPIs that are meaningful, quantifiable, and achievable. For example, you may want to look at the number of visitors to your website or social media platforms in exchange for web traffic or social reach as a measure of success. Or perhaps you’ll want to track the number of phone calls made to your customer service hotline in exchange for revenue.
2. Set benchmark targets and KPIs
Once you’ve established the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your strategy, you can set benchmark targets and track your progress toward them. Setting benchmarks and keeping track of progress is a key tenet of any strategy. For example, if you decide your KPIs are the number of website visitors, you’ll be able to benchmark your growth by comparing it to previous months or years. This will also give you a clear picture of how you’re progressing and allow you to make timely changes as needed.
3. Identify potential problem areas and brainstorm resolutions
When you’ve established your benchmark metrics, you can begin to identify potential problem areas and brainstorm resolutions. One of the most important things to do at this stage is to brainstorm without judgment. Every member of your team should be contributing ideas and suggestions, regardless of their role in the organization. You may also want to bring in subject matter experts from outside the company to help you identify potential problems and suggest solutions. The purpose of this step is to develop a comprehensive plan for your email marketing strategy. It should include all the different aspects you’ll need to think about to make the strategy a success.
4. Select the most appropriate tools for the job
The final step in the email marketing maturity model development process is to choose the most appropriate tools for the job. There are plenty of free and premium email marketing tools out there, so you don’t have to break the bank to run a successful campaign. As with any new marketing technology, it’s important to research and consider the various tools available before making a decision. Some of the key things to look out for include the tool’s ease of use, functionality, audience, and integrations. A good rule of thumb is to choose tools that are simple to use and that can quickly be integrated into your existing marketing technology stack (such as HubSpot or Google Marketing Platform).
When you follow these steps, you’ll be able to develop an effective email marketing strategy that will help you achieve your business goals.
Keep in mind that this is a living document that will need to be updated as your strategy changes and evolves over time. You may also want to revisit the strategy stage of the process after you’ve implemented it to make sure you’re still on track and to identify any areas where you could be doing better.