Mid-Year Email Marketing Resolutions to Act on Now

We marketers like to start the year out strong. We arm ourselves with long lists of New Year’s resolutions we know will make this year our strongest yet. But as the year goes on, we often forget to check back in with those resolutions. This summer, try something different.

We’ve identified several mid-year email marketing resolutions that will help you close out the second half of the year with a bang.

List Management

1. Do a subscriber gut-check. A simple yet strategic idea from Joe Pulizzi at the Content Marketing Institute: Compare your subscriber database against your customer database. Do they buy more? Do they stay longer? What else can you learn from the differences?
2. Learn more about subscribers. Identify three customer/prospect data points you would like to capture. Now list actionable steps you can take to begin to capture this data.
3. Re-engage inactive subscribers.Once you’ve verified the inactive email addresses that are still valid, brainstorm ideas to reel them back in. If they still don’t bite, consider pruning them from your list.

Messaging

1. Map out the buying journey. Better messaging starts with understanding what your customers need. The first step is to create a flowchart that identifies the various stages customers go through when considering whether to buy from your company.
2. Plot each customer on this journey. A recommendation from SilverPop: Develop a data-driven scoring system that assesses individual behaviors and allows you to determine where each customer is in the journey.
3. Deliver more relevant content.Use dynamic content blocks to align your messaging with this customer score. For instance, you may decide to populate your welcome message differently if the subscriber has previously made a purchase or is totally new to the company.

Planning & Strategy

1. Break down silos. Make it a priority to meet with a salesperson at least once a month so you can open dialogues and share new insights.
2. Facilitate goal-setting. Set up a spreadsheet that allows you to clearly identify and document goals for every email you send-as well as track the outcomes.
3. Reassess metrics.Review the metrics you’re measuring to ensure you’re adequately tracking engagement and conversions.

Technology

1. Set up A/B testing procedures. Every email marketer should employ A/B testing. At a minimum, establish procedures to test email subject lines, send day/time and calls-to-action.
2. Check emails on mobile devices. Nearly two out of three emails are read on a mobile device. Can your subscribers read yours? Test out multiple mobile devices to see how cleanly your emails are rendered on different technologies.
3. Validate data in real time.Use real-time data services to clean and correct the data you capture. A real-time API can even suggest corrections for typos and eliminate the entry of potential malicious addresses, improving your inbox delivery rate and adding a new layer of confidence in your list.

Have other email marketing resolutions to add to the list? Give us your suggestions using the comment section below.