We talk a lot about email marketing these days—crafting content, designing templates, choosing recipients, and, finally, sending out campaigns. Emails are sent by marketers to individuals who have the hopes of receiving content that interests them. Technology has a huge influence on email marketing, and that’s why marketers now need to be creative, critical, and action-oriented at the same time. With the entry of each tech disruption like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, and Predictive Reporting, email marketing sees new light, becoming more humanized and contextual.
Recently, we chatted with some email geeks and industry experts on Twitter about how smart email marketing is getting. Here are excerpts from our #ZCampaignsChat in our second Expert Diaries episode:
Q1. They say A/B testing also stands for “Always Be testing.” How do you think this method is evolving? #ZCampaignsChat
A/B testing is the most-sought-after tool for any email marketer. Subject lines, sender addresses, or content—experiments can be run for any attribute. But “smart” testing is when you not only know what you’re testing, but why and how to perform that test. Look what some of our experts say:
A1: The right martech makes A/B testing easier/faster, allows marketers to test nearly everything, and in real-time. Despite advances, A/B testing can still waste time and $$. AI+A/B helps marketers uncover hidden insights to A/B test for greatest impact. #ZCampaignsChat
— Tom Sather (@tom_sather) July 30, 2019
A1: Testing has to happen one piece at a time. You can't two elements of an email at the same time or you don't really know what has the greatest impact. Testing is, therefore, time consuming and clients avoid doing it (and miss huge opportunities by doing so) #ZCampaignsChathttps://t.co/u3FrVgHdcy
— Val Geisler 🖤🏳️🌈💌 (@lovevalgeisler) July 30, 2019
A1. “Always Be Testing” but “Always Have a Hypothesis”. Don’t test for the sake of testing. Have a testing plan in place. Even if it’s as simple as mapping out a few months' worth of subject line testing. #ZCampaignsChat (1/2) https://t.co/cEGPRb8Wse
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: A test without a plan is a lost route. First understand what attributes you’re testing and then reflect on why you to test them, which ultimately gives you answers for what metrics can optimize your emails. Some recent trends in Machine Learning are changing the way testing and experimentation is carried out, so leverage the power of these mechanisms as well. Don’t forget to test when you see what it yields!
Q2. Email cadence has been receiving a lot of press lately. What’s your ideal email-sending pattern for starters? #ZCampaignsChat
Every brand wants to send out emails, but do their recipients really look forward to receiving them? The answer is…it depends! While you think you craft the best email campaigns, somewhere at the other end of the globe, your recipient might see you as a potential spammer and try unsubscribing from your brand. So how do you avoid sending too many emails while also not underperforming? Watch out what our experts discuss:
A2. Over 80% of UK marketers want rules to dictate cadence. This makes no sense if you are trying to have a conversation. #ZCampaignsChat
— Skip Fidura (@skipfidura) July 30, 2019
A2: Cadence is SO unique by brand! One thing you'll learn as you grow a new email programs is that *relevance* wins out over a set rule on # of emails, i.e. automated emails!
That said, starting monthly and adding from there is always an easy place to start.#ZCampaignsChat
— Jessica Best (@bestofjess) July 30, 2019
A2: No ideal email cadence for everyone and depends on biz, individual subscriber’s prefs and age of subscription. Use data to see how subscribers interact with emails over time both positively and negatively. New subs usually welcome more email at first. #ZCampaignsChat
— Tom Sather (@tom_sather) July 30, 2019
Totally! And once you set those expectations for your subscribers you have to stick to them. Don't suddenly change your monthly newsletter to a weekly without letting them know. Some of those subscribers may only want monthly emails from you. #ZCampaignsChat
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: There is no one rule for brands. Every brand needs to find its own email cadence, which might sometimes call for common sense and relevance over rules. Marketers can use the data they collect to determine what works for them, but, again, too much data can bog them down too, making them indecisive. This is where a balance between intuition and data comes in, so get realistic and aware about your engagement pattern with recipients—what conversations they like, how much content they can process, and how they reacted to your previous emails.
Q3.What are some challenges you’ve faced in getting emails delivered, and how have you overcome them? #ZCampaignsChat
Getting your emails delivered to recipients’ inboxes can be the biggest challenge of all, considering the spam filters and umpteen domain reputation protocols. Beyond all this, brands still successfully manage to engage their contacts by sending emails that directly reach recipients’ mailboxes. Let’s hear from our experts as to how they handled unforeseen challenges while delivering their email campaigns:
(Some serious discussions can’t be restrained in 280 characters, you see! ;))
A3: How to answer this in 1 tweet??
First: you have to know if you have an inbox placement issue. Cue @returnpath or start by looking at your results by recipient email domain: if something's out of whack, you may have an issue!#ZCampaignsChat
— Jessica Best (@bestofjess) July 30, 2019
Good LORD. Do NOT switch ESPs if you're already having deliverability issues!
It's more often your fault as the marketer (content + how people got on your list) than it is your poor IP address 🙂#ZCampaignsChat
— Jessica Best (@bestofjess) July 30, 2019
A3. Maybe I'm making this too simple but The best way to maintain good deliverability is to engage your readers. In other words, don't send crap. #ZCampaignsChat
— Skip Fidura (@skipfidura) July 30, 2019
A3. If you’re having deliverability issues, the most important thing is to not feel shame! It happens to every single email marketer at some point in their career. Use the resources around you to get to the issue and figure out the solution. #ZCampaignsChat (1/5) https://t.co/0E0OPG1nAn
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: Don’t be embarrassed if your sender reputation is getting bad. Well, it does serve as an alert signal, but this is when you need to spend the time and analyze your domain reports and performance.
exactly. Don't run from your problems. They have a habit of following you! #ZCampaignsChat
— Tom Sather (@tom_sather) July 30, 2019
Don’t run away from problems; rather, take some simple yet effective measures like cleaning your mailing lists, adopting some list monitoring techniques, obtaining consent from people before sending emails, and studying your previous campaign metrics.
Q4. How are machine learning and AI shaping today’s email marketing strategy? #ZCampaignsChat
As stated earlier, machine learning and AI are transforming the way emails are created and delivered. While there are numerous advantages to these tools, the real question is whether marketers are really adept at handling them. Let’s look at what the experts think:
A4. The area I see it the most is making emails more relevant by dynamically inserting different content/products for different people #ZCampaignsChat
— Tim Watson (@tawatson) July 30, 2019
A4. … but don't be a magpie marketer and chase after the shiny new thing just because it has a sexy buzzword. #ZCampaignsChat
— Skip Fidura (@skipfidura) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: It’s undeniably true that machine learning and AI are changing the way email marketing is done, but one shouldn’t forget that as long as we don’t know what to achieve with them, they’re merely magic tools with no use. The future of marketing is highly shaped by the accurate decisions, strategies, and metrics that machine learning and AI put forward, so it’s time for email marketers to understand how best to leverage the power of these technological advancements.
Q5. Automated emails with humanized content is the new norm in email marketing. Your thoughts? #ZCampaignsChat
Automation is always welcomed by email marketers, and, true to its nature, it does save a lot of time. But sending emails in bulk needn’t mean the message should also be written for the “mass” audience. Automation certainly ensures the emails are delivered on point to the right people, however, designing tailored emails is still in a marketer’s hands. Here’s what our experts say about designing personalized emails:
A5. I have been saying for years that all we are trying to achieve is having human conversations at scale. #ZCampaignsChat
— Skip Fidura (@skipfidura) July 30, 2019
A5. Every email, whether automated or not, needs to have the human touch. Email is a 1:1 communication. Without a sense of authenticity or humanity in your email, you may as well be a robot. #ZCampaignsChathttps://t.co/eWItsuiMOOpic.twitter.com/KOKb0P2uq3
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
A5: The holy grail of email marketing is a fully personalized, automated and humanized content. Surely another area that AI and machine learning will help marketers achieve? But don’t be creepy. #ZCampaignsChat
— Tom Sather (@tom_sather) July 30, 2019
A5: Ha, I'm chuckling a bit here: What is "humanized" content?? Be actually human, please.
Automation is one of my favorite #emailmarketer tricks for getting emails to someone on their timeline, but content and messaging should all still be, well… human.#ZCampaignsChathttps://t.co/9dok54Tjub
— Jessica Best (@bestofjess) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: Emails need to be contextual and conversational. You can automate and mechanize the process of email creation, but in the end, they’re delivered to humans who would prefer to read content that relates to them. If you fail to bring in a human-to-human feel, the whole idea of delivering emails would fail. It’s time to send humanized emails, dear marketers!
Q6. Unsubscribes aren’t always harmful to your brand. What do you think? #ZCampaignsChat
Marketers are frequently frustrated with the opt-outs that increase with every email they send. But rarely do marketers take the time to understand what made people quit receiving the email in the first place. And only a chunk of them feel positive about the whole “unsubscribe” show. Want to know why?
A6: Bring on the unsubs! They're cleaning up your list (good for deliverability), telling you they aren't a good fit for you (good for product-market fit), and saving you money on your per-profile costs with your ESP! #ZCampaignsChathttps://t.co/AC3Ncwy7kd
— Val Geisler 🖤🏳️🌈💌 (@lovevalgeisler) July 30, 2019
Allowing subscribers to easily unsubscribe isn’t just about deliverability, it’s about how your brand is viewed by your subscribers. If you hide your unsubscribe, you could be seen as deceptive and untrustworthy. Is that really how you want to be seen? #ZCampaignsChat (2/2)
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
A6. Unsubscribes are to be embraced. Whilst we'd rather not have them, they are ultimately a very good thing. Break ups happen and finishing a relationship on a good note, not sour one, is always best #ZCampaignsChat
— Tim Watson (@tawatson) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: Unsubscribes aren’t always harmful. Sometimes it gives you a way to clean your mailing lists and keep only the contacts relevant to your brand. Unsubscribes also help you reflect on your campaigns’ performances and take actions that will improve engagement.
Q7. Which performance metric best determines an email’s success for you? #ZCampaignsChat
Creating and sending email campaigns has got a step beyond—reviewing. An email’s success is determined by many different criteria that differ across brands and their intent to engage. That said, here’s our experts’ outlook on which performance metric could be looked at:
A7. The best performance metric is the one that tied to your goal or CTA, like revenue per email, or downloads, etc. Metrics like Opens should be tracked but are better in troubleshooting why a campaign didn’t meet objectives. #ZCampaignsChat
— Tom Sather (@tom_sather) July 30, 2019
It takes looking at opens, clicks, conversions, unsubscribes, spam complaints, etc, to give you a full picture of the success of your campaign. #ZCampaignsChat (2/2)
— Jaina Mistry (@jainamistry) July 30, 2019
A7. So as close to the sales as I can get and still have current enough information to make changes mid-campaign. #ZCampaignsChat (2/2)
— Skip Fidura (@skipfidura) July 30, 2019
Takeaway: Plan well before you send out your campaigns—this will help you decide which metrics are essential for your brand so that you can effectively track them. Moreover, studying performance metrics is important to revising your email marketing strategy, so looking at a campaign’s opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints helps you get a complete picture.
We hope this episode of #ZCampaignsChat helps you understand the importance and power of email marketing in the digital age. Got some interesting perspectives to share? Drop in your comments and let’s discuss email marketing!
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