Online marketing is constantly evolving and it is getting faster and faster. Not a week goes by without news. At Google, for example, there’s always something going on, but the speed of innovation is also increasing at Facebook . This also applies to various other areas. And where topics such as SEO or social media are among the subjectively most interesting focal points, the classics are often neglected. One of these classics is email marketing. In addition to mobile marketing and letter mailings, e-mail marketing is clearly part of the marketing mix for many companies today, and above all at the top. However, nothing works here without a good strategy if you don’t want to burn your money pointlessly. So time for 5 tips that should not be missing in a successful email marketing strategy.

Define goal correctly

Basically not that difficult, you should think. But even at this point there are dangers lurking, if you don’t really know what you actually want. For a successful email marketing strategy it is very important to know the goal of a campaign.

What should be achieved? Is it about actually selling? If you want to reach existing customers, of course, you have an advantage, after all you are known as a seller. It looks different when you want to inspire new customers.

The way to the goal is not always easy. For the right email marketing strategy, however, it is important to know as precisely as possible in advance who belongs to the target group and where this target group can be found. The better the knowledge of all the facts that lead to the goal, the easier it will be later to implement a campaign meaningfully.

Obtain good email addresses

Nothing works without quality. This does not only apply to content. High quality content is also vital for the e-mail marketing strategy. The focus here is of course on the source material and that is the email addresses.

The first question you should ask yourself: How big is your own inventory of email addresses? What other data do you have? Can you address the recipient personally? How old are the email addresses?

The older an address is, the more likely it can be “annoying”. Sometimes it is no longer valid, sometimes the owner no longer remembers that he / she has released his / her own email address at all. The consent must therefore be available. This works best with the ” double opt-in ” procedure.

And of course you can also buy e-mail addresses. It’s then a question of the budget, so what you want to spend. If you really aim at your own target group, then your own channels such as the website are more suitable for procurement.

Coordination of suitable content

Also important for a successful email marketing strategy: the content has to be right. When it comes to existing customers, for example in an online shop, the matter is relatively clear. You have to offer these people similar things that they have already purchased in the shop. So you have to know the interests, which requires more extensive data sets.

This can be implemented accordingly when generating e-mail addresses. Appropriate content is so important because e-mail is a very fast medium. If the sender has managed to get the potential customer’s attention (for which the design of the email and especially the subject line is important), then a few seconds (if at all) decide whether the content of the email Mail is seen as useful.

If you make a mistake here, you are wasting opportunities and opportunities. So depending on who you want to send a newsletter for, for example : knowing the recipients as precisely as possible and coordinating the content accordingly, together with the design of the email and the time of sending, are decisive. You should do your homework here.

Use professional shipping software

This may sound trivial when you first hear it, but: Outlook is not suitable for e-mail marketing campaigns. It is unusable under the most perfect strategy possible. Crucial features such as list management, automatic opt-in and opt-out procedures are missing (to name just a few).

In addition, Outlook becomes weak when a certain number of recipients is reached. Things like personalizing a newsletter can be the difference between the success and failure of a campaign. The design of an e-mail is also affected: although Outlook can also be used to help with the design, it is not really convincing.

Good software for sending e-mail campaigns is much more helpful. A sensible bounce management can automatically sort out e-mails that no longer exist. This ensures that the mailing list is always up to date and you save your own resources.

Correct measurements are half the battle

The use of appropriate software is also worthwhile for this: for measuring success. Or failures, depending on the situation. In any case, the fact is that as part of a meaningful email marketing strategy, you have to know which content, methods and sending times work and which don’t.

But you can only experience that if you take correct measurements. And no matter which tool you do it with, it is important to learn the right lessons from it. For example, when did my newsletter have the best open rates? Which of my existing customers also ordered again during the last campaign?

It can be technically demanding. To start with, it is enough to work with special URLs so that you can understand the customer’s path. Landing pages set up specifically for campaigns can also be useful. This makes it possible to see whether a potential customer who received an offer via email has found exactly what he was looking for.

Conclusion

It is not easy to find the right email marketing strategy for you, your product or your service. It is important to test and to do so continuously. Classic A / B tests help if, for example, 50 percent of the recipients of a newsletter are directed to one landing page and the other half to a second.

Basically, however, the basis has to be right for the digital marketing strategy i.e. email marketing strategy to work. The right preparation, target group-specific content and the right tools are essential and must not be missing. Incidentally, this also applies to the source material – the e-mail addresses.

As I said, it is possible to shop accordingly in this area. From my point of view, however, the organic creation of email addresses makes much more sense. It leads to less wastage and thus helps the e-mail marketing strategy to be really successful.