Test Your Email Marketing Services

WRM-Media - Email Marketing Specialists

Morgan Stewart from Media Post recently advised that mass email marketing success was entirely dependent on prior testing.

Stewart said that the inbox is a ‘phenomenal equaliser’ demanding that brands of all shapes and sizes meet appropriate standards. A fair comment, as it is true that every email fights for a recipient’s attention from the same place with only its brand reputation and a subject line to stand it in good stead.

‘To improve, you need to try new stuff - a lot!’ he said.

‘However, change for the sake of change itself usually just perpetuates mediocrity. Give yourself (or your team) the freedom to push the limits while constantly comparing the results of these new approaches against a control."

Business standards for testing email campaign performance should be compared against their own previous experiences, in order to improve upon their best, as opposed to making a comparison to the rest of the industry.

Measuring Targeted Email Marketing

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A recent study by MarketingSherpa has suggested that many marketers struggle to continually deliver highly relevant content to a specific target audience.

Despite this, email remains one of the most valuable forms of communication in the majority of digital marketing strategies when focus is given to quality over quantity.

Measuring the return on investment of email marketing is notoriously difficult for many. It can be hard to monitor email responses and the rate of opening to sales/lead. Many companies that provide email marketing services will also provide you with a report upon campaign completion, which details the clicks, opens and unsubscribers to name a few.

To minimise the number of unsubscribers, businesses should be patient when building a targeted email list. One typically successful way of growing such a list is to ask website visitors to provide their email address in return for a service that indicates some of their interests. For example, if website visitors have to leave their email address in order to gain access to a downloadable white paper or extra content/news, you can be fairly sure they are interested in the content on offer.

WRM-Media’s consumer site Who-Remembers-Me.com requests that members agree to receive email marketing material in return for free membership to the site and as the site’s purpose is for members to reconnect with old friends, WRM can offer unparalleled data accuracy as well as an ability to measure the results of all email campaigns.

Small Businesses Benefit From Email Marketing

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Georgia Christian of Male Blaze has suggested that small businesses should be able to receive good ROI from email marketing thanks to its cost effectiveness. In an article for Marketing Web, she noted that the channel is an effective way to establish long lasting relationships with a wide audience of consumers.

"With each permission-based email campaign that your recipient opens, you are effectively establishing a trusting relationship with them," said Ms Christian.

"Your email messages will, over time, make your customers feel as though they are an important part of your company."

WRM-Media believe that email marketing can be a valuable tool to small businesses because it allows targeting towards either a very wide audience, which businesses would be unable to attain otherwise; it also enables targeting towards a very niche marketing if appropriate.  Small businesses can benefit from niche targeting if they cannot afford to lose emails sent to uninterested recipients.  Email marketing can be sent both en masse and to a niche market, making it a unique form of communication.

The Pitfalls of International Marketing

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There are many intricacies within international digital marketing, which often encourages marketing companies to remain within the safety net of their own national perimeters.

However, these are exciting times for international email marketing. It has fast become the quickest, most cost-effective way of communicating with consumers. Ideal for expanding internationally, the digital avenue provides the opportunity to reach consumers all over the world, instantly. It has the best global penetration of all direct marketing services but the pitfalls can seem endless if you don’t have a good understanding of international email marketing from the outset.

Companies such as StrongMail, CheetahMail and Datran Media are all US email vendors that have expanded globally, so going global makes sense for the email marketing specialists targeting their consumers. But where do you start if you have yet to dip your toe into international waters?

Communicating internationally involves much more than simply gaining access to email addresses abroad, as so many companies fail to recognise. As the number of different targeted demographics you need to tailor towards suddenly soars, the time zones you work in clash and the behavioural and cultural expectations of your consumers differ, it’s easy to see why some marketing companies fall into the trap of sending international email campaigns using the same strategies as their own national campaigns. 

However, international expansion will be detrimental to the survival of data owners and direct marketers, which means a consideration of the different nuances across geographic location is vital.

The first difficulty in international email marketing is the difference in time zones. This can make a huge difference to the success of campaigns, as emails received at the start of the day are proved to benefit from a much better open and click rate. Not only this, but consider the difficulties encountered by seasonal campaigns when you send out an international email about bikinis – it might be summer in the US but with winter in Australia, your campaign suddenly loses all relevance.

Another, more dangerous issue is that of legislation. Many countries vary in their laws on email marketing, and an awareness of these differences is vital in maintaining good international relations. Laws on privacy regulations and use of personal details vary significantly depending on the country and you could find yourself on the wrong side of the law if you don’t take the time to investigate these differences.

Collecting data in countries that are yet to take full advantage of email marketing will enable you to build brand awareness in a developing industry. Sooner rather than later is the adage here.

For any growing database marketing business, international communication is crucial for sustained success, however, there are several pitfalls to consider before embarking on a global marketing operation. By researching individual country legislation and preference, organisations set themselves up for successful ongoing international communication in the future.