Is your email marketing working?
There is an adage coined in the madmen era of advertising by luminary Howard Luck Gossage that states: “People don’t read ads. They read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.” At a time when the public is bombarded with 3000-5000 messages daily, that statement is truer today than ever.
Some companies have given up on email marketing, believing it’s an ineffectual tool given everyone’s overflowing inboxes. While others go through the motions of using email to reach prospects without the benefit of a clear purpose. At C.O.nxt and Jigsaw, we believe that it’s not the medium that is ineffective, but how it’s strategized and executed that makes it so. Case in point, not only have we yielded amazing results for our clients, but we have also done it on behalf of our agency.
We Practice What We Preach
As a digitally forward agency, we devised and currently manage successful email campaigns for most of our clients over many years. But it wasn’t until we launched our campaign that we truly understood the potential, commitment, and challenges of creating a successful email campaign.
How did we do it? We started with a sound strategy that would become the foundation of the content we’d create and the media in which it was delivered, e.g., blog, podcast, webinar. We thought long and hard about the audiences we wanted to reach—marketing types and senior leaders of companies we wanted to do business with—and considered “what do they want to know” and “what do they need to know” to be better in their job. We also tried to get the tone right: informative and smart, without being heavy-handed or pedantic. We then invested in market research and tapped our internal thought leaders and a cadre of others outside the agency to bring fresh perspectives and spark new conversations.
Whose job is it anyway?
It’s a question we’ve all asked when it comes to email marketing. A lot of email campaigns fail because it’s no one person’s responsibility. In truth, we realized early on it would “take a village.” So, we assembled a team—each person tasked with contributing their expertise and challenging others to put forth their best effort. Who contributed?
- The Strategist: Sets goals and aligns your emails with business objectives.
- The Writer: Crafts engaging copy that resonates with your audience.
- The Designer: Ensures visually attractive and on-brand templates.
- The Digital Specialist: Manages automation and device compatibility, tracks engagement and analyzes performance for continuous improvement.
The unsung hero in our campaign’s success is our Workflow manager, who keeps us on task. Each week the team meets as the manager checks the status of assignments, holds contributors accountable and sets deadlines. Wash, rinse, repeat. Without this commitment and accountability on the team’s behalf, our campaign would have been doomed to fail.
Our Toolbox
Cracking the email marketing code takes more than the right team, it takes killer technology. Our team has spent the past 15 years developing a tried-and-true toolbox of email marketing essentials:
- Google Analytics: Tracks website traffic to ensure your emails reach the right audience.
- Lead Forensics: Converts anonymous website visitors into actionable leads.
- HubSpot: Saves time, optimizes marketing efforts and measures results.
- AI: Our team uses the latest and greatest artificial intelligence to maximize resources.
Analyze, Optimize, Iterate
Our work is never done. We take a “what’s next” approach to our campaign and are constantly learning and iterating to find the holy grail of the right message to the right audience, at the right time. It’s both invigorating and maddening. But our combination of the right team, insatiable curiosity and channeling our inner nerd has resulted in ever-improving results.
The Bottom Line is the Bottom Line
Since the campaign launched in 2022, we’ve experienced astounding open rates of more than 45% (industry average is 20%) and click through rates of nearly 10% (industry average 3.5%). We’ve increased our prospect list by 35%, added nineteen new clients to our roster and deepened relationships with existing clients. Most impressive are the results—our email new business efforts have contributed a whopping 14% to our gross income each of the last two years.
Ready to rock the email marketing game? Whether you’re busy nurturing leads, rekindling the spark with your customers or turning up the spotlight on your brand, our all-star team can tailor our email marketing services to your goals. Let’s create a sustainable strategy for your business. Ready for a free consultation?
