Whether you are already using a form of email marketing and need to convince management to upgrade your strategy or you are completely new to the topic and need to show the importance of email, you should think about these major steps.
Step One: Define Email Marketing
Email marketing can mean lots of things to lots of people. To some, it involves renting lists from 3rd parties while for others it means cultivating relationships with your existing contacts to drive sales as well as customer retention. For the purposes of this document, we define email marketing as the latter.
Step Two: Set Goalsa
Remember that you need to communicate the purpose of email marketing strategy for your organization. Start with a goal so that others can see how it ties into the overall business strategy.
Step Three: Your List
Your contacts form the foundation of your strategy. After all, you’re building a strategy around communicating with them. Your goals are tied to their actions. Your lists are the most important piece of the puzzle. Successful email marketing is a result of sending relevant content, so your plan should include learning as much as you can about your contacts.
Step Four: Organize by Department or Group
How many people will use email marketing within your organization? Is it just for corporate communications or will the PR folks use it? Web group? Product marketing? Channel marketing? The toolkit will provide advice to help you get organized so that marketing can still have some control over the consistency of all communications.
Step Five: Plan for Content
One of the biggest reasons newsletters die is that people can’t come up with content at the deadline. Create an editorial calendar for your newsletters and have this ready with your proposal. You can hire a digital marketing company make time to plan, write, design, and send your newsletters regularly.
Step Six: Bottom Line
People love numbers. Be prepared to discuss the ROI and the metrics you will use to determine your success.
