5 Steps to Killer Email Marketing Programs with CRM
Email marketing remains one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to take your message and your value proposition to the masses.
On average, a company reaps more than $51 for every $1 it spends on email marketing tools, according to a 2006 survey by the Direct Marketing Association. But, with tens of thousands of emails being blasted to existing and potential customers each day – how can you make yours stand out from the crowd and maximize campaign ROI?
5 Ways to Build Email Marketing Programs with CRM
Here are 5 great ways to leverage your CRM system to improve the effectiveness your email marketing programs.
1. Segment Your Audience
Irrelevant email content is likely to lead to poor response and conversion rates. Instead of taking the “one size fits all” approach to your email initiatives and blasting the same message to a large list of contacts, increase the impact of your content by breaking your audience down into several sub-groups, based on set of common characteristics. Then, create seperate custom-tailored messages, offers, and promotions desgined to appeal specifically to each group.
2. Personalize
Personalization is the key to effective email marketing. In fact, leading analyst firm AMR Research predicts that the use of personalization techniques can increase conversion rates by between 20 to 30%.
Your CRM solution provides a wealth of information about each potential customer, such as their needs, preferences, and behaviors. Use this intelligence – and the marketing automation capabilities of your CRM system – to speak to each prospect as an individual, and appeal to their unique challenges and wants. For example, fully-personalized landing pages, URLs, fulfillment pieces, and other campaign components can all be generated by today’s more advanced marketing automation systems.
3. Test, Test, Then Test Again!
Because many CRM and marketing automation systems provide comprehensive results analysis, they offer a great opportunity to try different variations on your campaign theme before you launch it full-scale.
For example, pick a small subset of your list, perhaps just 50 to 100 contacts, and use it to test different subject lines and call to action offers. Analyze the results carefully to determine which elements perform the best, then use the “winners” when launching the production campaign.
4. Take the Cross-Channel Approach
In today’s age of aggressive marketing tactics, email alone may not be enough. A study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau demonstrates that use of multiple communication channels to disseminate your marketing message can increase brand equity by 34% and boost purchase intent by close to 1000%. Yet many businesses lack the resources to effectively execute and manage true cross-channel marketing campaigns. CRM systems make it easier to develop and deploy fully-integrated campaign strategies across multiple mediums and vehicles. So, your email programs can work in synch with your other marketing initiatives such as events, telemarketing, and search engine optimization.
5. Follow Up Promptly
Many experts believe that a lack of timely follow-up is the primary reason for the low conversion rates that many marketing teams experience today.
Studies show that a prospect will have a little or no recollection of a marketing or promotional piece they saw just five to seven days earlier. CRM systems make it easier to ensure prompt follow-up. With CRM, lead workflows can be fully automated, allowing your marketing professionals to track campaign responses and dynamically initiate follow-up processes. For example, many CRM solutions can instantly route campaign responses to appropriate sales reps, or send a follow-up email just a few days later with a related offer or promotion.
Looking to start your search for an email marketing tool?
Compare leading email marketing solutions side by side in our free Top 10 Email Marketing Software report. You can also peruse all of our marketing software resources by visiting our blog and our Marketing Software Research Center.
[Photo courtesy of digitaltrends.]
