How to do email marketing correctly
Email marketing is permission-based marketing. It is a marketing strategy that involves sending emails only to people who have explicitly agreed to receive them. This is in contrast to spam, which is unsolicited email that is sent to people who have not given their permission to receive it.
There are many benefits of permission-based email marketing, such as:
- Higher engagement: People who have opted in to your email list are more likely to open and read your emails, click on your links, and take action.
- Improved brand reputation: Permission-based email marketing is seen as a more respectful and ethical way to communicate with potential customers.
- Reduced risk of spam filters: Your emails are less likely to be flagged as spam if you are sending them to people who have opted in to receive them.
Best practice to get permission to send emails:
- Use opt-in forms: Place opt-in forms on your website, in your social media profiles, and in your email signature.
- Include opt-in options on your marketing materials: Add opt-in options to your brochures, flyers, and other marketing materials.
- Ask for permission verbally: If you meet someone in person, ask them if they would like to join your email list.
Once you have permission to send emails, it is important to make sure that your emails are:
- Relevant to your audience: Send emails that are relevant to the interests of your subscribers.
- Personalize: Use your subscribers' names and other information to personalize your emails.
- Valuable: Provide your subscribers with something of value, such as discounts, coupons, or exclusive content.
- Regular: Send emails on a regular schedule, but don't send them too often.
Email marketing evolved into marketing automation. They are two closely related marketing techniques, but they have different goals and capabilities.
Email marketing is the process of sending emails to a list of subscribers to promote products, services, or content. Email marketing can be a very effective way to reach a large audience and generate leads, but it can also be time-consuming and manual.
Marketing automation is a more sophisticated approach to marketing that uses software to automate many of the tasks involved in marketing, including email marketing, social media marketing, and lead nurturing. Marketing automation allows businesses to reach more customers, personalize their marketing messages, and track the results of their campaigns more effectively.
Here is a table summarizing the key differences between email marketing and marketing automation:
| Feature | Email Marketing | Marketing Automation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary goal | Send emails to promote products, services, or content | Automate marketing tasks, personalize marketing messages, and track campaign results | |
| Scope | Single marketing channel (email) | Multiple marketing channels (email, social media, landing pages, etc.) | |
| Targeting | Limited to demographic and interest data | Can use more advanced targeting, such as lead scoring and real-time data analysis | |
| Automation | Limited to email scheduling and drip campaigns | More complex automation workflows, including lead nurturing and multi-channel campaigns | |
| Reporting | Basic analytics, such as open rates and click-through rates | More advanced reporting, such as conversion rates and customer lifetime value | |
Here are some examples of how marketing automation can be used:
- Nurturing leads: Marketing automation can be used to send a series of emails to leads based on their behavior, such as pages they visit, content they download, or actions they take. This helps to nurture leads and move them closer to the point of sale.
- Personalizing marketing messages: Marketing automation can be used to personalize marketing messages based on a lead's interests, demographics, and purchase history. This helps to make marketing messages more relevant and engaging.
- Tracking campaign results: Marketing automation can be used to track the results of marketing campaigns, such as website traffic, leads generated, and sales conversions. This helps businesses to measure the ROI of their marketing efforts.
In general, marketing automation is a more powerful and versatile marketing tool than email marketing. However, email marketing is still a valuable tool for businesses of all sizes.
Here is a table summarizing when to use email marketing and marketing automation:
| Situation | Use Email Marketing | Use Marketing Automation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early in the sales cycle | YES | NO | |
| Sending promotional emails | YES | NO | |
| Nurturing leads | YES | YES | |
| Personalizing marketing messages | LIMITED | YES | |
| Tracking campaign results | YES | YES | |
| Complex marketing campaigns | NO | YES | |
Need not to say, there are so much more that we can enhance email marketing such as advanced tracking using web analytics or customization for your email templates, etc, etc.
How to measure marketing performance
How to develop a marketing measurement framework?
A measurement framework is a structured system for assessing the effectiveness of a program, initiative, or intervention. It helps to ensure that the right data is collected, analyzed, and used to make informed decisions about resource allocation, program improvement, and overall success.
To develop a measurement framework, we should start with building a baseline. We can begin with using Google Trends for researching the top-of-mind. In Google Trends you can see what people are searching for on Google, and how those searches change over time, by season, and by geographic location so you can get relevant insights into what your customers are researching online.
Case study:
There are 4 common ways to use Google Trends
- Compare multiple topics to discover what’s popular
- Look at trends over time to find seasonal patterns
- Explore “rising” and “breakout” terms related to your searches
- Zero in on a specific area to understand local trends
Example:
There are 4 common ways to use Google Trends
- Compare multiple topics to discover what’s popular
- Look at trends over time to find seasonal patterns
- Explore “rising” and “breakout” terms related to your searches
- Zero in on a specific area to understand local trends
A measurement framework is a document that should be tailored to the specific needs of your program, initiative, or intervention. By following the below steps, you can develop a framework that will help you track progress, measure success, and make informed decisions about your program’s future.
Here's a step-by-step guide to developing a measurement framework:
Clearly articulate what you want to achieve with your program, initiative, or intervention. This will help you identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you need to measure.
Determine who you are trying to reach with your program, initiative, or intervention. This will help you choose the right KPIs to measure the impact on your target audience.
Create a diagram or narrative that outlines the causal relationships between your program’s activities and the desired outcomes. This will help you identify the KPIs that are most closely linked to the outcomes you want to achieve.
Choose the specific metrics that will measure the progress and success of your program, initiative, or intervention. Make sure that your KPIs are relevant, measurable, achievable, time-bound, and specific (SMART).
Determine how you will collect the data needed to measure your KPIs. This could involve surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, or data from existing sources.
Create a plan for analyzing the data you collect. This should include statistical methods, data visualization techniques, and reporting procedures.
Create a system for using the data you collect to make informed decisions about your program, initiative, or intervention. This could involve sharing data with stakeholders, making adjustments to the program, or replicating successful strategies.
Regularly review and evaluate your measurement framework to ensure that it is still effective and relevant. Make adjustments as needed to reflect changes in your program, initiative, or intervention.
Give your marketing budget a purpose. The first step of planning a marketing budget is to set the expectation right. Knowing how to calculate the marketing ROI is always the best practice.
The following is an interactive Google ads budget calculator. It illustrates the best practice how marketing performance should be projected:
How to use QR in Marketing
How to use QR code to improve marketing engagement
QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by smartphones to access information or take action. It has become increasingly popular in marketing, as it offers a number of benefits over traditional marketing methods.
QR codes have the ability to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. It can be used to connect people to a variety of online content, such as websites, videos, and social media pages. Applying QR codes in your marketing can be a great way to promote your brand, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads.
Case study:
In April 2022, YouTuber – Zack Freedman – tweeted a GIF created by Repeated Failure that’s gone viral. The GIF contains an animated QR code with moving frames that you might recognize it is the dance sequence from Rick Astley’s famous Never Gonna Give You Up music video.
The QR code other than being an artistic graphics, the GIF actually works as a QR code.
Actually the technique to create animated QR code isn’t that complicated. You simply overlay the animation sequence on top of the QR code image while ensuring the code remains scannable throughout the animation. And then render the animation as a video file or GIF format.
Benefits of using QR codes in marketing:
- Increased engagement: QR codes can be used to provide consumers with quick and easy access to information, such as product details, videos, or coupons. This can help to increase engagement with your brand and drive conversions.
- Improved customer experience: QR codes can be used to streamline the customer experience, such as providing quick access to menus, product information, or customer support. This can help to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Enhanced data tracking: QR codes can be used to track how consumers are interacting with your marketing campaigns. This data can be used to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed.
- Bridged offline and online marketing: QR codes can be used to bridge the gap between offline and online marketing. For example, you can use QR codes on print ads to direct consumers to your website or social media pages.
- Cost-effective solution: QR codes are a relatively inexpensive way to market your business. There are a number of free QR code generators available online, and you can create and print your own QR codes.
Here are some specific examples of how QR codes can be used in marketing:
- Product packaging: QR codes can be used on product packaging to provide consumers with more information about the product, such as ingredients, recipes, or nutritional information.
- Print ads: QR codes can be used on print ads to direct consumers to your website, landing page, or social media pages.
- Signage: QR codes can be used on signage to provide consumers with information about a product or service, such as pricing, availability, or directions.
- Coupons and promotions: QR codes can be used to deliver coupons and promotions to consumers. Consumers can scan the QR code to redeem the coupon or promotion.
- Contests and giveaways: QR codes can be used to enter contests and giveaways. Consumers can scan the QR code to enter their information.
QR Codes are trackable. Tracking QR codes allows you to measure the effectiveness of your QR code campaigns and gain valuable insights into user behavior. Here are two main methods for tracking QR codes:
Using dynamic QR codes:
Dynamic QR codes are generated with shortened URLs that contain tracking parameters, such as UTM parameters. When a user scans a dynamic QR code, these parameters are recorded, allowing you to track scan data in analytics tools.
Here’s how to track QR codes using dynamic QR codes:
- Generate a dynamic QR code: Use a QR code generator tool that supports dynamic QR codes. Create a shortened URL using a URL shortening service like Bitly or Rebrandly. Add UTM parameters to the shortened URL to track specific campaign data.
- Deploy the QR code: Distribute your dynamic QR code in print materials, online platforms, or physical locations.
- Set up analytics tracking: Integrate your analytics platform, such as Google Analytics, with your URL shortening service. Configure your analytics platform to track UTM parameters.
- Monitor scan data: Access your analytics dashboard to view QR code scan data. Analyze metrics like total scans, unique scans, scan locations, and device types.
Using QR code tracking platforms:
QR code tracking platforms provide specialized tools for managing and tracking QR code campaigns.
Here’s how to track QR codes using QR code tracking platforms:
- Choose a QR code tracking platform: Popular options include QRCode Monkey, QR Code Generator PRO, and Supercode.
- Create an account and generate QR codes: Sign up for an account on the chosen platform. Generate QR codes for your campaigns and assign them unique identifiers.
- Deploy the QR codes: Distribute your QR codes in various channels.
- Track QR code scans: Log in to your platform's dashboard to view scan data. Analyze metrics like total scans, unique scans, scan locations, and device types.
- Utilize advanced features: Explore the platform's advanced features, such as campaign segmentation, data export, and reporting tools.