In the ever-changing inbox, it's critical for brands to have clear goals and objectives when creating an email contact strategy. Marketers are pairing a smart mix of strategy, user experience and effective design to drive engagement and deliver relevant, timely messaging.
Contact Strategy Development
Beyond the basics, it's important to address two vital components in developing a good contact strategy. Focus on both your business needs and subscribers needs, using a simple checklist:
In reality, marketers have to justify the money being spent on their programs, so having set business goals and measuring against them is critical. Once you have a solid plan in place, we can start to explore the elements that create successful messages within an overall contact strategy.
Stay tuned for more information on:
Message Personalities
What is your value proposition? The purpose behind the message being sent is foremost. Messages can take on different personalities based on what type of content is being presented. We'll explore the personalities that make up subscriber-centric messages, brand-centric messages and relationship-building messages.
Message Types
A wealth of interactive messaging drives business – newsletters, welcomes, promotions and cross-sells, alerts, apologies and more. Explore which types make sense for your brand's contact strategy.
Message Formats
The actual format of an email can be customized to fit your content's specific needs, but take on three structural formats: a postcard, newsletter and transactional format. We'll explore design considerations and starter wireframes for each.
Stay tuned for more information on these message personalities, type and formats. In the meantime, check out slides from my Connections presentation, The Contact Strategy Visualized. For additional interactive marketing tips and advice, read our past blogs or follow @ETDesign on Twitter.
Andrea Smith
Senior Design Consultant
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team
Contact Strategy Development
Beyond the basics, it's important to address two vital components in developing a good contact strategy. Focus on both your business needs and subscribers needs, using a simple checklist:
- Define your audience
To whom are you sending? - Determine business goals and set a clear value proposition
What do your subscribers want? What information do you need to send? For each delivered message, be sure the subscriber is aware of what you want them to do once they receive your email. - Decide what messages will be sent
What communications make sense for your business? Set clear expectations with your subscribers and deliver on those expectations. - Plan segmentation, frequency and timing
What segments support your business goals? Do you have the resources to support these segments – both data and creative? - Define success by looking back to your business goals
How will you measure success? Open/click data? Leads generated? Conversion rate? Purchase? - Evaluate periodically
Set milestones. Revise your strategy if needed.
In reality, marketers have to justify the money being spent on their programs, so having set business goals and measuring against them is critical. Once you have a solid plan in place, we can start to explore the elements that create successful messages within an overall contact strategy.
Stay tuned for more information on:
Message Personalities
What is your value proposition? The purpose behind the message being sent is foremost. Messages can take on different personalities based on what type of content is being presented. We'll explore the personalities that make up subscriber-centric messages, brand-centric messages and relationship-building messages.
Message Types
A wealth of interactive messaging drives business – newsletters, welcomes, promotions and cross-sells, alerts, apologies and more. Explore which types make sense for your brand's contact strategy.
Message Formats
The actual format of an email can be customized to fit your content's specific needs, but take on three structural formats: a postcard, newsletter and transactional format. We'll explore design considerations and starter wireframes for each.
Stay tuned for more information on these message personalities, type and formats. In the meantime, check out slides from my Connections presentation, The Contact Strategy Visualized. For additional interactive marketing tips and advice, read our past blogs or follow @ETDesign on Twitter.
Andrea Smith
Senior Design Consultant
ExactTarget Campaign Solutions Team
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