Research says that more than 50% of companies doesn’t have an email marketing strategy. That is a shame. A good strategy it will take you from AD-HOC to Structure, allows you to prioritize, and make a plan, put it on a timeline, and stick to. It is all about answering tough questions and then choosing a path about what to do. But even more about especially what NOT to do. And if you haven’t done this exercise, the questions will surprise you.
Business goals are the foundation of your email strategy
In companies where email strategy is taken seriously, all parts of the business strategy come together. And often it turns out that target audience, business goals, and priorities aren’t set on the business level – where they should. Well, where at least should for the better part. So what happens is that crafting an email strategy, becomes crafting (part of the) marketing strategy. That is why I introduce and often would use my Business Model Canvas for Marketing.
My advice is; claim that room, and color in the specifics. Understand your customers, understand the business, understand the whole marketing plan. Because a great email marketer can show how they contribute to reaching business goals.
Here are a few example dilemma’s and choices to be made.
* What will we do with low-profit customers? Attract them, invest and try to grow, or focus on customers that are high profit from the start? Where is the cutoff point and how will we put budget to work best?
* How much of the budget will go into acquiring new subscribers? How will we do this and where?
* What are the 5 most important data points we’d like to know about each subscriber and turn into meaningful action?
