If you’re like me, maybe your resolution this year was to not have a resolution. I swore off resolutions a few years ago – the year after I resolved to run a marathon (accomplished!) but realized in doing so that my resolutions were in fact things that should be an integral part of my life: Keep active. Keep learning. Maintain a work / life balance. Together, those things comprise the big picture “life foundation.” And I’ve found that if I focus on living it, all the little things fall into place – sometimes effortlessly, and sometimes with a lot of work.
Email marketing is no different. Last year, when I started working with our email program, I set out resolutions like “get a 15% click-through rate” and “implement a testing schedule” and “lower our unsubscribe rate.” Sound familiar? While we were able to achieve them, we were missing the big picture. The why we needed to accomplish those goals is just as important as the goals themselves. Our own email program “big picture” is:
- Customer Retention
- Lead Conversion
- Brand Awareness
From here, it’s easy to identify the areas we can improve on (and relate them back to our broader vision). For 2008, our goals are:
- Analytics and Metrics
- Building Better Lists
- Automation
These may seem basic – but that’s exactly the point. By boiling it down into the key areas to improve, we can prioritize where to put our efforts. The critical part is knowing what we’re working for, and then establishing actionable milestones that will be steps in the right direction.
You might notice something missing from the goals above. Specifics. Yep, I know they’re gone, too. But things like “run reports on email performance” and “implement web analytics tracking” and “add 20% more subscribers to our list” aren’t goals – they’re actions. They should be recorded and executed on appropriately…but to me, they set the bar too low. If we know one of our goals is building a better list, for example, then adding more subscribers becomes just one piece of a bigger puzzle.
So this year, you’ll notice a renewed focus on the foundations of email marketing – planning, design, deliverability, list quality, etc. To help you strengthen each area of your own program, we’re adding a new section to your InSight Newsletter called “Back to Basics.” Each month, we’ll focus on one area for you to improve – and deliver a brand new type of resource to help you take action.
It’s no coincidence that next month’s focus is “Building a Better List,” so stay tuned! In the meantime, I’d encourage you to register for a new webinar offered by our extremely talented Account Management team, and to sound off on what your 2008 email marketing “big picture” is.
Cheers,
Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications
