In the age of constant distraction, it’s easy to fall into the trap of clickbait. Someone sends you an email with the Subject line “New breakthrough technique to double your income in under 30 days!” and then they drop a web link in the body of the email. So, you click the link and within seconds you’re staring at a screen full of bloated text promising to tell you how to make millions from home. Now, that might be true, but you’ve actually just consumed an unhealthy amount of digital breadcrumbs, which will leave you craving more bland food.
As a marketer, you know that a massive 81% of adults open email marketing messages from brands. So, it would be a missed opportunity if you don’t take the time to find a good email marketing software that can help you automate your marketing campaigns.
Whether you’re a DIY marketer or an entrepreneur who’s taking the plunge and hiring staff, you’ll need a way to effectively communicate with your customers or audience. Email marketing software can help you automate your day-to-day email campaigns and handle all the back and forth with your employees, such as:
Automating Email Campaigns
Giving customers what they want is always a top priority. You want to ensure that they’re happy and content with what you’re offering, which often means you need to have a way of constantly providing value.
Even the most seamless customer experience can feel icky if it’s not delivered with value. One of the essential elements of any brand experience is the feeling that follows a purchase. When that purchase is delivered with value, delight, and trust, it feels all the more real.
One of the best things about automated email campaigns is that you can easily set up a few targeted emails with pre-built links to specific landing pages or blog posts. You won’t need to manually type out a new email every time you want to send one out. Plus, you can segment your lists based on things such as interest or demographics, which brings us to our next point….
Segmenting Your Lists
Even if you have the most perfect automation set up, you have to remember that people change their minds about products and services all the time. A commonly used sales process called: Inbound Marketing, ensures that you always have the freshest potential customers in your funnel.
The inbound marketing model focuses on creating valuable content that inspires action. So, you’re not just dropping un-targeted messages into people’s inboxes. Rather, you’re creating content such as:
- landing pages
- eBooks
- newsletters
- blogs
- YouTube videos
- infographics
- social media posts
- reminders
- email campaigns
- …
All of this content can be aimed at different groups of people, meaning you can target specific demographics or interest groups with your content. You can use things such as:
- landing page metrics
- browser headers
- email client metadata
- social media handles
- …
to track who’s opening your emails, what links they’re clicking on, and most importantly, what actions they’re taking (such as making a purchase or subscribing to your list).
Customer Behaviour Analytics
Imagine for a moment that you’re one of the 72% of email marketing users who have a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software integrated into their marketing dashboards. You’ll see a steady stream of engagement from customers as you track their behavior across different digital properties.
You can see how much value an email marketing app can provide by simply looking at the most popular customer behavior analytics tools. Here are a few of the most useful metrics:
- Unique Visitors
- Session Duration
- Pageviews
- Bounce Rate
- Time on Site
- Users
- Product Search Matches
- …
You can measure the effectiveness of your marketing activities by looking at the behavior of your audience (e.g., who’s opening your emails, what links they’re clicking on, and most importantly, what actions they’re taking (such as making a purchase or subscribing to your list)).
Efficiency Metrics
As a business owner, you’re interested in seeing how much value you’re getting for the investment you’re making. One of the best things about automated email campaigns is that you can track several metrics associated with its efficiency.
With basic email marketing software, you can track things like the number of emails you’ve sent and how many of them have been opened. But, you can also track more complicated stats such as:
- Clicks
- Cost per Conversion
- Cost per Acquisition
- …
These metrics are all relative to marketing activities aimed at driving profitable, behavior changes in customers. The above email marketing software can help make your life easier and let you focus on growing your business instead of trying to micromanage your email marketing campaigns.
Sales Enablement & Product Management
Last but not least, we have the role that sales and marketing play in driving business growth. One of the reasons that automation is so effective in email marketing is because you can easily set up targeted campaigns aimed at product managers, salespeople, and decision makers. This way, you can ensure that every single person who interacts with your product is always seeing the most up-to-date information.
Product management and sales enablement are the actions of marketing and sales teams to: Ensure that every interaction with a customer is a good one.
You can take this a step further by using things like:
- Chatbots
- Voiceovers
- Transcriptions
- Images
- …
to have a conversation with your customers and walk them through every step of a buying process, from the information they provide to the delivery of the product. This ensures that every interaction is of high quality and that the customer feels secure about buying your product. (more on this later)
Why should you care about email marketing software?
Apart from the fact that almost all adults use it, email marketing is a highly effective and proven mode of digital marketing. As a digital marketer who wants to improve their marketing efficiency, you should look for a tool that can help automate and track every aspect of your email campaigns. These integrations can make life a lot easier and help you focus on what’s important to you – running your business.
When it comes to email marketing software, the choice can be overwhelming. There are so many different products and features to choose from, meaning it’s not easy to find the one that’s best suited to your needs. To help you make the right decision, we’ve compiled a list of everything to consider before buying. So, let’s begin.
Features
One of the first things you’ll need to consider is the features of the product. Some companies specialize in certain areas of marketing, such as email marketing, web content, and social media. So, it’s essential that you check what specific features their products offer before making any purchase. You should see the features as a convenience, as these days, you likely won’t need all of them.
These days, you can find almost all the email marketing software features you need (at least the basics) in a free trial or subscription. The best thing about this is that you can actually try the product before committing to a purchase. This way, you won’t be left disappointed. Another important factor to keep in mind: many companies that specialize in email marketing also offer other types of products and services, such as web content and social media management. Finding a tool that’s perfectly suited to your business can be difficult. Therefore, it’s essential that you do your research before purchasing such a product.