New Chart: Most Effective Email Marketing Objectives for 2011

In my last post on email, I talked about email marketing challenges. Today, I’d like to focus on email marketing objectives.

There are many good reasons for email marketing. Send out a well thought out and timed email and you can see sales jump. Unfortunately, many companies get addicted to email sends that produce instant sales, and when the numbers decrease, they wonder why.

That’s why it’s so important to set your objective for your email marketing. What do you want and expect from your email sends? Once you figure that out you can measure the effectiveness of these objectives.

So which objectives are most effective?

This should not be a surprise since with emails you want people to click to your landing pages or website.

But the number 2, according to MarketingSherpa, may come as a bit of a surprise – building brand awareness.

People often overlook the value of email as a brand awareness tool – but think about it for a moment, and you can see why.

To begin with, most business emails are not opened. According to eMarketer, the average open rate for a marketing email is 19.1%. That leaves 80% of your sends not being opened. However, there is a better chance that your prospect saw either your company’s name in the “from” line and read your subject line, but chose not to open your email.  Each time your email arrives in an inbox means you’re making your prospect aware of you. That’s why it’s so important to create a consistency with your subject line, because each subject line builds a little more brand awareness and identity.

And, when your email is opened (and read), it’s important that you provide them with information they expect from your brand.

The number 3 most effective objective is increasing sales revenue. That’s easier said than done, and requires coordination between the email, the offer and the landing page. One of the best ways to learn how to do this effectively is to read up on case studies. At MarketingSherpa’s upcoming Email Summit 2011, there are a number of sessions that deal directly with increasing sales through email. One is a panel how to develop content for specific buying stages and another is a case study on turning innovation into new revenues. 

Do you agree with these email marketing objectives?  What will you concentrate on during 2011?

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