Time to Evaluate Your Email Marketing Success
by: Karen Scharf, Small Business Marketing
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Now that the year is more than half-way over it’s a great time to assess what’s worked for you, and prepare for the months ahead. Here is the straightforward assessment I use to critique my email marketing campaign and plan for improvements. I suggest you apply this evaluation to your own campaign as you put your 3rd and 4th quarter email marketing plans together. Simply ask yourself the following questions:
- What was the overall goal of my email marketing campaign? Was I trying to generate more leads, make more sales, increase brand awareness? What specific numbers was I trying to reach and did I attain the numbers I wanted? (For instance, if your goal was lead generation, exactly how many leads were you aiming for and how many leads did you actually acquire?)
- If I did not achieve my overall goal, can I pinpoint the trouble areas? Are my open rates below industry standards? Are my clickthroughs lower than expected? What can be done to improve my email messages on an individual basis? (If you don’t analyze your email messages on an individual basis, you should definitely plan to do that in the future.)
- What techniques did I use to grow my list and which of these techniques were most successful? Which were most time consuming? Which were least effective? Which techniques do I plan to repeat and which will I drop from my repertoire? (Remember the 80/20 rule. Don’t waste your time on ineffective list-growth programs.)
- How have I segmented my list and how have I taken advantage of these individual segments? How can my list be further segmented and what can be done to increase relevance and personalization? (As in-box clutter becomes even more serious, segmentation, relevance and personalization will be keys to effective email campaigns going forward.)
- How often did I send useful, content-driven messages? What was my planned publication schedule and was I able to maintain this schedule? Did I send too often? Not often enough? Do I plan to continue this same schedule in the second half of the year?
- Which of my email campaigns got the best results? Which received the worst results? What can I attribute this to? Subject line? Content? Personalization? How do I plan to improve my results?
- What were my delivery rates for the first half of the year? How do these rates compare to industry standards? Where do the problems with my delivery occur? Technical issues? Hard bounces? Soft bounces? Spam rejections? What are my plans for increasing delivery over the next 6 months?
- Have I maintained CAN-Spam compliance throughout my email marketing program? How do I handle unsubscribe requests? Is my list double opt-in? Do I include my mailing address in all of my messages? Have I ensured my SPF record is up to date? (If you’re not familiar with maintaining CAN-Spam compliance, request a copy of my free CAN-Spam checklist.)
By reviewing the best and the worst of your email marketing program, you’ll be better equipped to plan an amazing campaign for the second half of the year.
Plan For Your Overall Business Success
While you’re at it, why not consider a complete review of your entire business in general? Check out SuccessNet.org. I personally belong to a SuccessNet Mastermind team, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned and how it’s impacted my business. They offer several different business building levels, and I’m positive that one is just right for you.
While you’re at the SuccessNet site, be sure to take a look at the Goal Planner. It’s extremely inexpensive, and it’s perfect for helping you plan your business success. (By the way, YES, I do have the SuccessNet Goal Planner, and YES, I do use it on a regular basis.)
July 16th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I admire the time and effort you put into your blog. I wish I had the same drive